THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


L 


THE 
SOUTHERN   SOUTH 


THE 
SOUTHERN    SOUTH 


BY 
ALBERT  BUSHNELL  HART,  PH.D.,  LL.D.,  Lrrr.D. 

PROFESSOR    OF  HISTORY,    HARVARD  UNIVERSITY 


NEW    YORK    AND    LONDON 

D.     APPLETON     AND     COMPANY 

1912 


COPYRIGHT,  1910,  BY 
D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY 


Published  April,  1910 


Printed  in  the  United  State*  of  America 


Collega 
Library 

F 

210 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAGE 

INTRODUCTION 1 

I. — MATERIALS 7 

II. — THE  SOUTHLAND 20 

III.— THE  POOR  WHITE 30 

IV. — IMMIGRATION           48 

V. — SOUTHERN  LEADERSHIP 59 

VI. — SOUTHERN  TEMPERAMENT 66 

VII. — ATTITUDE  TOWARD  HISTORY 80 

VIII. — NEGRO  CHARACTER 91 

IX. — NEGRO  LIFE 106 

X. — THE  NEGRO  AT  WORK 120 

XI. — Is  THE  NEGRO  RISING? 132 

XII. — RACE  ASSOCIATION 149 

XIII. — RACE  SEPARATION 166 

XIV. — CRIME  AND  ITS  PENALTIES 181 

XV. — LYNCHING 205 

XVI. — ACTUAL  WEALTH 218 

XVII. — COMPARATIVE  WEALTH 231 

XVIII.— MAKING  COTTON 250 

XIX.— COTTON  HANDS 261 

XX.— PEONAGE 278 

XXI.— WHITE  EDUCATION 288 

XXII. — NEGRO  EDUCATION .  308 

XXIII. — OBJECTIONS  TO  EDUCATION 323 

XXIV. — POSTULATES  OF  THE  PROBLEM 338 

XXV.— THE  WRONG  WAY  OUT 347 

XXVI. — MATERIAL  AND  POLITICAL  REMEDIES        .       .       .  367 

XXVII.— MORAL  REMEDIES  .               378 

MAP  AND  TABLES           396 

INDEX 419 

V 


1611174 


THE  SOUTHERN  SOUTH 


INTRODUCTION 

THE  keynote  to  which  intelligent  spirits  respond  most 
quickly  in  the  United  States  is  Americanism;  no 
nation  is  more  conscious  of  its  own  existence  and  its 
importance  in  the  universe,  more  interested  in  the  great- 
ness, the  strength,  the  pride,  the  influence,  and  the  future 
of  the  common  country.  Nevertheless,  any  observer  pass- 
ing through  all  the  parts  of  the  United  States  would  dis- 
cover that  the  Union  is  made  up  not  only  of  many  states 
but  of  several  sections — an  East,  a  Middle  West,  a  Far 
West,  and  a  South.  Of  these  four  regions  the  three  which 
adhere  most  strongly  to  each  other  and  have  least  conscious- 
ness of  rivalry  among  themselves  are  often  classed  together 
as  "  The  North,"  and  they  are  set  in  rivalry  against  "  The 
South,"  because  of  a  tradition  of  opposing  interests,  com- 
mercial and  political,  which  culminated  in  the  Civil  War 
of  1861,  and  is  still  felt  on  both  sides  of  the  line. 

That  the  South  is  now  an  integral  and  inseparable  part 
of  the  Union  is  proved  by  a  sense  of  a  common  blood,  a 
common  heritage,  and  a  common  purpose,  which  is  as 
lively  in  the  Southern  as  in  the  Northern  part  of  the 
Union.  The  dominant  English  race  stock  is  the  same  in 
both  sections:  in  religion,  in  laws,  in  traditions,  in  ex- 
pectation of  the  future,  all  sections  of  the  United  States 
are  closer  together  than,  for  instance,  the  three  compo- 

1 


THE    SOUTHEKN    SOUTH 

nents  of  the  kingdom  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland. 
Whatever  the  divergence  between  Southerners  and  North- 
erners at  home,  once  outside  the  limits  of  their  common 
country  they  are  alike ;  the  Frenchman  may  see  more  dif- 
ference between  a  Bavarian  and  a  Prussian  than  between 
a  Georgian  and  a  Vermonter. 

It  is  not  to  the  purpose  of  this  book  to  describe  those 
numerous  common  traits  which  belong  to  people  in  all 
sections  of  the  United  States,  but  to  bring  into  relief  soinu 
of  the  characteristics  of  the  South  which  are  not  shared 
by  the  North.  For  it  is  certain  that  the  physical  and 
climatic  conditions  of  the  South  are  different  from  those 
of  the  North;  and  equally  sure  that  as  a  community  the 
South  has  certain  temperamental  peculiarities  which  af- 
fect its  views  of  the  world  in  general  and  also  of  its  own 
problems.  Slavery,  which  had  little  permanent  effect  on 
the  society  or  institutions  of  those  parts  of  the  North  in 
which  it  existed  up  to  the  Revolution,  was  for  two  cen- 
turies a  large  factor  in  Southern  life,  and  has  left  many 
marks  upon  both  white  and  negro  races.  The  existence 
of  a  formerly  servile  race  now  ten  millions  strong  still 
influences  the  whole  development  of  the  South. 

Unlike  the  North,  which  ever  since  the  Civil  War  has 
felt  disposed  to  consider  itself  the  characteristic  United 
States,  the  South  looks  upon  itself,  and  is  looked  upon  by 
its  neighbors,  as  a  unit  within  a  larger  unit;  as  set  apart 
by  its  traditions,  its  history,  and  its  commercial  interests. 
The  ex-president  of  the  Southern  Confederaey  a  few  years 
ago  at  a  public  meeting  declared  that  he  appeared  "  In 
a  defense  of  our  Southland."  A  Southland  there  is,  in 
the  sense  of  a  body  of  states  which,  while  now  yielding 
to  none  in  loyalty  to  the  Union  and  in  participation  in  its 
great  career,  adhere  together  with  such  a  sense  of  peculiar 

2 


INTRODUCTION 

life  and  standards  as  is  not  to  be  found  in  any  group  of 
Northern  communities  except  perhaps  New  England. 

The  Northerner  who  addresses  himself  to  these  special 
conditions  of  the  South  must  expect  to  be  asked  what 
claim  he  has  to  form  or  express  a  judgment  upon  his 
neighbors.  The  son  of  an  Ohio  abolitionist,  accustomed 
from  childhood  to  hear  questions  of  slavery  and  of  nation- 
ality discussed,  I  have  for  many  years  sought  and  ac- 
cepted opportunities  to  learn  something  of  these  great 
problems  at  first  hand.  As  a  teacher  I  have  come  into 
contact  with  some  of  the  brightest  spirits  of  the  South, 
and  among  former  students  count  at  least  two  of  the 
foremost  writers  upon  the  subject — one  a  White  and  the 
other  a  Negro.  For  some  years  I  have  carried  on  an 
active  correspondence  with  Southern  people  of  every  vari- 
ety of  sentiment.  I  have  diligently  read  Southern  news- 
papers and  have  been  honored  by  their  critical  and  some- 
times unflattering  attention.  In  the  last  twenty-five  years 
I  have  made  a  dozen  or  more  visits  to  various  parts  of  the 
South  ranging  in  length  from  a  few  days  to  four  months, 
and  therein  have  gained  some  personal  acquaintance  with 
the  conditions  of  all  the  former  slave-holding  states  except 
Missouri  and  Florida.  In  the  winter  of  1907-8  I  took 
a  journey  of  about  a  thousand  miles  through  rural  parts 
of  the  belt  of  states  from  Texas  to  North  Carolina,  with 
the  special  purpose  of  coming  into  closer  personal  touch 
with  some  phases  of  the  problem  upon  which  information 
was  lacking. 

There  need  be  no  illusions  as  to  the  extent  of  the 
knowledge  thus  acquired.  These  various  journeys  and 
points  of  contact  with  Southern  people  have  shown  how 
large  is  the  Southern  problem,  and  how  hard  it  is  to  dis- 
cover all  the  factors  which  make  the  problem  difficult. 

3 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

Every  year  opens  out  some  new  unexplored  field  which 
must  be  taken  into  account  if  one  is  to  hope  for  anything 
like  a  comprehensive  view  of  the  subject.  How  shall  any 
Northerner  coming  into  a  slave-holding  region  set  his  im- 
pressions alongside  the  experience  of  men  who  have  lived 
all  their  lives  in  that  environment?  What  is  seven  months' 
residence  by  a  visitor,  a  fly  on  the  wheel,  against  seventy 
years'  residence  by  men  who  are  a  part  of  the  problem? 

There  are  two  sides  to  this  question  of  the  value  of  the 
observations  of  an  outsider.  Sometimes  he  is  the  only 
one  who  thinks  investigation  worth  while;  and  too  much 
caution  in  hazarding  an  opinion  would  put  a  stop  to  all 
criticism  by  anybody  except  the  people  criticised.  The 
observer  over  the  walls  may  see  more  than  the  dweller 
within.  A  Southerner  coming  up  to  make  a  study  of  the 
government  in  Massachusetts  would  probably  discover 
queer  things  about  the  Street  Department  of  Boston  that 
escape  the  attention  of  those  who  breathe  the  city's  dust; 
he  might  learn  more  about  the  conditions  of  mill  towns 
like  Fall  River  than  the  citizen  of  Boston  has  ever  ac- 
quired; he  might  attend  a  town  meeting  in  villages  like 
Barnstable,  into  the  like  of  which  the  Fall  River  man 
never  so  much  as  sets  his  foot ;  he  may  find  out  more  about 
the  county  commissioners  of  Bristol  County  than  was 
ever  dreamed  by  the  taxpayers  of  Barnstable;  he  may  in- 
form the  dairyman  on  Cape  Cod  of  the  conditions  of  the 
tobacco  farms  on  the  Connecticut;  and  hear  complaints 
from  the  factory  hands  of  New  Bedford  which  never  reach 
their  employers.  It  is  just  so  in  the  South,  where  many 
people  know  intimately  some  one  phase  of  the  race  prob- 
lem, while  few  have  thought  out  its  details,  or  followed 
it  from  state  to  state.  A  professor  in  the  University  of 
Louisiana  might  tell  more  about  the  race  and  labor  con- 

4 


INTRODUCTION 

ditions  of  his  State  than  the  writer  shall  ever  learn;  but 
perhaps  he  could  not  contribute  to  knowledge  of  the  Sea 
Islands  of  South  Carolina  or  the  Texas  truck-  farms  or 
the  mountains  of  North  Carolina.  The  privilege  of  the 
outside  visitor  to  the  South  is  to  range  far  afield,  to 
compare  conditions  in  various  states,  and  to  make  gen- 
eralizations, subject  to  the  criticism  of  better  qualified 
investigators  who  may  go  over  the  same  area  of  printed 
book  and  open  country,  but  which  have  a  basis  of  personal 
acquaintance  with  the  region. 

If  this  book  make  any  contribution  toward  the  knowl- 
edge and  appreciation  of  Southern  conditions,  it  must  be 
by  observing  throughout  two  principles.  The  first  is  that 
no  statement  of  fact  be  made  without  a  basis  in  printed 
material,  written  memoranda,  or  personal  memory  of  the 
testimony  of  people  believed  to  speak  the  truth.  The  sec- 
ond is  that  in  the  discussion  there  be  no  animus  against 
the  South  as  a  section  or  a  people.  I  have  found  many 
friends  there.  I  believe  that  the  points  of  view  of  the  re- 
flective Northerner  and  the  reflective  Southerner  are  not 
so  far  apart  as  both  have  supposed;  as  a  Union  soldier's 
son  I  feel  a  personal  warmth  of  admiration  for  the  heroism 
of  the  rival  army,  and  for  the  South  as  a  whole;  and  I 
recognize  the  material  growth,  the  intellectual  uplift,  and 
the  moral  fervor  of  the  Southern  people.  In  one  sense  I 
am  a  citizen  of  the  Southland.  When  a  few  years  ago 
at  a  Phi  Beta  Kappa  dinner  in  Cambridge,  the  president 
of  the  University  of  North  Carolina  said :  "  I  love  North 
Carolina,  I  ought  to  love  that  State,  because  it  is  my  native 
country !  "  President  Eliot  replied,  when  his  turn  came : 
"  President  Winston  says  that  North  Carolina  is  his  native 
country;  gentlemen,  it's  our  native  country." 

For  this  reason  has  been  chosen  as  the  title  of  this  book, 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

"The  Southern  South."  Leaving  out  of  account  those 
parts  of  the  South,  such  as  the  peninsula  of  Florida,  which 
are  really  transplanted  portions  of  the  North;  setting 
aside  also  the  manifold  national  characteristics  shared  by 
both  sections,  I  shall  attempt  to  consider  those  conditions 
and  problems  which  are  in  a  measure  peculiar  to  the  South. 
The  aim  of  the  work  is  not  to  cavil  but  to  describe,  with 
full  realization  that  many  of  the  things  upon  which  com- 
ment is  passed  are  criticised  in  the  South,  and  have  a 
counterpart  in  the  North. 

Properly  to  acknowledge  the  information  and  impres- 
sions gained  from  friends,  and  sometimes  from  persons 
not  so  friendly,  would  require  mention  of  scores  of  names ; 
but  I  cannot  forbear  to  recognize  the  candor  and  courtesy 
which,  with  few  exceptions,  have  met  my  inquiries  even 
from  those  who  had  little  sympathy  with  what  they  pre- 
sumed to  be  my  views.  The  ground  covered  by  the  book 
was  traversed  in  somewhat  different  analysis  and  briefer 
form  in  a  course  of  lectures  which  I  delivered  before  the 
Lowell  Institute  in  Boston  during  February  and  March, 
1908.  Parts  of  the  subject  have  also  been  summarized  in 
a  series  of  letters  to  the  Boston  Transcript,  and  an  article 
in  the  North  American  Review,  published  in  July,  1908. 
While  a  year's  reflection  and  restatement  in  the  light  of 
additional  evidence  have  not  changed  the  essential  conclu- 
sions, I  have  found  myself  continually  infused  with  a 
stronger  sense  that  the  best  will  and  effort  of  the  best 
elements  in  the  South  are  hampered  and  limited  by  the 
immense  difficulties  of  those  race  relations  which  most 
contribute  to  keep  alive  a  Southern  South. 


CHAPTER   I 

MATERIALS 

FOR  an  understanding  of  the  Southern  South  the  ma- 
terials are  abundant  but  little  systematized.  In  ad- 
dition to  the  sources  of  direct  information  there  is 
a  literature  of  the  Southern  question  beginning  as  far  back 
as  Samuel  SewalPs  pamphlet  "  Joseph  Sold  by  His  Breth- 
ren/' published  in  1700.  Down  to  the  Civil  War  the 
greater  part  of  this  literature  was  a  controversy  over 
slavery,  which  has  little  application  to  present  problems, 
except  as  showing  the  temper  of  the  times  and  as  furnish- 
ing evidence  to  test  the  validity  of  certain  traditions  of 
the  slavery  epoch.  The  publications  which  are  most  help- 
ful have  appeared  since  1880,  and  by  far  the  greater  num- 
ber since  1900.  Besides  the  formal  books  there  is  a  shower 
of  pamphlets  and  fugitive  pieces;  and  newspapers  and 
periodicals  have  lately  given  much  space  to  the  discus- 
sion of  these  topics. 

So  multifarious  is  this  literature  that  clues  have  be- 
come necessary,  and  there  are  three  or  four  serviceable 
bibliographies,  some  on  the  negro  problem  and  some  on 
the  Southern  question  as  a  whole.  The  earliest  of  these 
works  is  "  Bibliography  of  the  Negroes  in  America " 
(published  in  the  "  Reports  "  of  the  United  States  Com- 
missioner of  Education,  1894,  vol.  i).  More  searching, 
and  embracing  the  whole  field  of  the  Negro's  life  in 

7 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

America,  are  two  bibliographies  by  W.  E.  Burghardt 
DuBois,  the  first  being  "  A  Select  Bibliography  of  the 
American  Negro "  ("  Atlanta  University  Publications," 
1901),  and  "A  Select  Bibliography  of  the  Negro  Ameri- 
can" ("Atlanta  University  Publications,"  No.  10,  1905). 
A.  P.  C.  Griffin  has  also  published  through  the  library 
of  Congress  "  Select  List  of  References  on  the  Negro 
Question"  (2d  ed.,  1906)  and  "List  of  Discussions  of  the 
Fourteenth  and  Fifteenth  Amendments"  (1906).  One  of 
the  most  useful  select  bibliographies  is  that  of  Walter  L. 
Fleming  in  his  "  Reconstruction  of  the  Seceded  States, 
1865-76"  (1905).  The  author  of  this  book,  in  his 
volume  on  "  Slavery  and  Abolition "  ("  The  American 
Nation,"  vol.  xvi,  1908),  has  printed  a  bibliographical 
chapter  upon  the  general  question  of  negro  servitude  in 
America.  The  study  of  the  Southern  question  would  be 
much  lightened  were  there  a  systematic  general  bibliog- 
raphy, with  a  critical  discussion  of  the  various  works  that 
may  be  listed. 

A  part  of  the  problem  is  the  spirit  of  those  who  write 
formal  books,  and  a  group  of  works  may  be  enumerated 
which  take  an  extreme  anti-Negro  view  and  seek  to  throw 
upon  the  African  race  the  responsibility  for  whatever  is 
wrong  in  the  South.  Dr.  R.  W.  Shufeldt  (late  of  the 
United  States  army)  has  published  "  The  Negro  a  Men- 
ace to  American  Civilization  "  (1907),  of  which  the  theme 
is  sufficiently  set  forth  by  the  wearisome  use  of  the  term 
"  hybrid  "  for  mulatto ;  he  illustrates  his  book,  supposed 
to  be  a  logical  argument  on  the  inferiority  of  the  Negro, 
with  reproductions  of  photographs  showing  the  torture 
and  death  of  a  Negro  in  process  of  lynching  by  a  white 
mob;  and  he  sums  up  his  judgment  of  the  negro  race 
in  the  phrase  "  The  Negro  in  fact  has  no  morals, 

8 


MATERIALS 

and  it  is  therefore  out  of  the  question  for  him  to  be 
immoral." 

The  most  misleading  of  all  the  Southern  writers  is 
Thomas  Dixon,  Jr.,  a  man  who  is  spending  his  life  in  the 
attempt  to  persuade  his  neighbors  that  the  North  is  pas- 
sionately hostile  to  the  South;  that  the  black  is  bent  on 
dishonoring  the  white  race;  and  that  the  ultimate  remedy 
is  extermination.  In  his  three  novels,  "The  Leopard's 
Spots"  (1902),  "The  Clansman"  (1905),  and  "The 
Traitor"  (1907),  he  paints  a  lurid  picture  of  Reconstruc- 
tion, in  which  the  high-toned  Southern  gentleman  tells  the 
white  lady  who  wishes  to  endow  a  college  for  Negroes 
that  he  would  like — "  to  box  you  up  in  a  glass  cage,  such 
as  are  used  for  rattlesnakes,  and  ship  you  back  to  Bos- 
ton." One  of  these  novels,  "The  Clansman,"  has  been 
dramatized,  and  its  production,  against  the  remonstrances 
of  the  respectable  colored  people  in  a  Missouri  town, 
led  directly  to  a  lynching.  No  reasonable  being  would 
hold  the  whole  South  responsible  for  such  appeals  to 
passion;  but  unfortunately  many  well-meaning  people 
accept  that  responsibility.  In  Charlotte,  N.  C.,  the 
most  refined  and  respectable  white  people  went  to  see 
"  The  Clansman "  played  and  showed  every  sign  of  ap- 
proval, as  appears  to  have  been  the  case  in  Providence, 
R.  I.,  in  1909.  A  recent  writer,  John  C.  Reed,  in  his 
"  Brothers'  War,"  brackets  Thomas  Dixon,  Jr.,  with 
John  C.  Calhoun  as  exponents  of  Southern  feeling  and 
especially  lauds  Dixon  as  the  "  exalted  glorification  "  of 
the  Ku  Klux. 

The  volume  from  Dixon's  pen  which  has  had  most  in- 
fluence is  "  The  Leopard's  Spots,"  the  accuracy  of  which 
is  marked  by  such  assertions  as  that  Congress  made  a  law 
which  gave  "  to  India  and  Egypt  the  mastery  of  the 

9 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

cotton  markets  of  the  world " ;  and  that  it  cost  $200,- 
000,000  to  pay  the  United  States  troops  in  the  South  in 
the  year  1867.  The  book  has  been  traversed  with  great 
skill  by  a  negro  writer.  When  Dixon  asks :  "  Can  you 
change  the  color  of  the  Negro's  skin,  the  kink  of  his  hair, 
the  bulge  of  his  lip  or  the  beat  of  his  heart  with  a  spell- 
ing-book or  a  machine  ? "  Kelly  Miller  replies :  "  You 
need  not  be  so  frantic  about  the  superiority  of  your  race. 
Whatever  superiority  it  may  possess,  inherent  or  acquired, 
will  take  care  of  itself  without  such  rabid  support.  .  .  . 
Your  loud  protestations,  backed  up  by  such  exclamatory 
outbursts  of  passion,  make  upon  the  reflecting  mind  the 
impression  that  you  entertain  a  sneaking  suspicion  of  their 
validity." 

Many  Southern  writers  are  disposed  to  put  their  prob- 
lems into  the  form  of  novels,  and  there  are  half  a  dozen 
other  stories  nearly  all  having  for  their  stock  in  trade  the 
statutes  of  Reconstruction,  the  negro  politician  who  wants 
to  marry  a  white  woman,  and  the  vengeance  inflicted  on 
him  by  the  Ku  Klux.  In  the  latest  of  these  novels  the 
President  of  the  United  States  is  pictured  as  dying  of  a 
broken  heart  because  his  daughter  has  married  a  man 
who  is  discovered  to  be  a  Negro. 

A  book  very  widely  read  and  quoted  in  the  South  is 
Frederick  L.  Hoffman,  "  Race  Traits  and  Tendencies " 
("Am.  Economic  Association  Publications,"  xi,  Nos.  1,  2, 
and  3,  1896).  "Race  Traits"  is  .written  by  a  man  of 
foreign  extraction  who  therefore  feels  that  he  is  outside 
the  currents  of  prejudice;  it  is  well  studied,  scientifically 
arranged,  and  rests  chiefly  on  statistical  summaries  care- 
fully compiled.  The  thesis  of  the  book  is  that  the  Afri- 
cans in  America  are  a  dying  race,  but  many  of  the  gen- 
eralizations are  based  upon  statistics  of  too  narrow  a  range 

10 


MATERIALS 

to  permit  safe  deductions,  or  upon  the  confessedly  im- 
perfect data  of  the  Federal  censuses. 

Quite  different  in  its  tone  is  a  book  which  is  said  to 
have  been  widely  sold  throughout  the  South,  and  which 
seems  to  be  written  for  no  other  purpose  but  to  arouse 
the  hostility  of  the  Whites  against  the  Negroes.  The  title 
page  reads :  "  The  Negro  a  Beast  or  In  the  Image  of 
God  The  Reasoner  of  the  Age,  the  Revelator  of  the 
Century!  The  Bible  as  it  is!  The  Negro  and  his  Re- 
lation to  the  Human  Family!  The  Negro  a  beast,  but 
created  with  articulate  speech,  and  hands,  that  he  may 
be  of  service  to  his  master — the  White  man.  The  Negro 
not  the  Son  of  Ham,  Neither  can  it  be  proven  by  the 
Bible,  and  the  argument  of  the  theologian  who  would 
claim  such,  melts  to  mist  before  the  thunderous  and  con- 
vincing arguments  of  this  masterful  book."  This  savage 
work  quotes  with  approval  an  alleged  statement  of  a 
Northern  man  that  inside  the  next  thirty  years  the  South 
will  be  obliged  to  "  Re-enslave,  kill  or  export  the  bulk 
of  its  Negro  population."  It  insists  that  the  Negro  is  an 
ape,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  he  has  not  four  hands ; 
he  has  no  soul;  the  mulatto  has  no  soul;  the  expression 
"  The  human  race "  is  a  false  term  invented  by  Plato 
"in  the  atheistic  school  of  evolution."  The  serpent  in 
the  garden  of  Eden  was  a  Negro.  Cain  was  also  mixed 
up  in  the  detestable  business  of  miscegenation,  for  the 
Bible  says,  "  Sin  lieth  at  thy  door,  and  unto  thee  shall 
be  his  desire,  and  thou  shalt  rule  over  him."  The  writer 
has  taken  pains  to  point  out  that  "The  mere  fact  that 
the  inspired  writer  refers  to  it  in  the  masculine  gender 
is  no  evidence  that  it  was  not  a  female."  The  mulatto 
being  "  doomed  by  Divine  edict  to  instant  death  .  .  . 
neither  the  mulatto  nor  his  ultimate  offspring  can  acquire 
2  11 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

the  right  to  live.  This  being  true,  it  follows  that  these 
monstrosities  have  no  rights  social,  financial,  political  or 
religious  that  man  need  respect."  Wherever  you  find  the 
word  beast  in  the  Bible  it  means  the  Negro ! 

If  such  passionate  and  rancorous  books  were  all  that 
sprang  from  the  South,  the  problem  would  end  in  a  race 
war;  but  as  will  be  seen  throughout  this  discussion,  there 
are  two  camps  of  opinion  and  utterance  among  Southern 
white  people.  On  one  side  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  suf- 
fereth  violence  and  the  violent  take  it  by  force;  on  the 
other  side  there  is  a  body  of  white  writers  who  go  deeper 
into  the  subject,  who  recognize  the  responsibility  of  the 
white  race  as  the  dominant  element,  and  who  preach  and 
expect  peace  and  uplift.  Such  a  writer  is  A.  H.  Shannon 
in  his  "  Racial  Integrity  and  Other  Features  of  the  Negro 
Problem"  (printed  in  Nashville  and  Dallas,  1907).  In 
good  temper  and  at  much  length  he  argues  that  the  Negro 
owes  to  the  white  man  a  debt  of  gratitude  for  bringing 
his  ancestors  out  of  African  barbarism,  though  the  prin- 
cipal evils  of  the  negro  question  are  due  to  the  inferior 
race. 

A  widely  read  book  of  the  same  type  is  Thomas  Nelson 
Page's  "The  Negro:  the  Southerner's  Problem"  (1904). 
Mr.  Page  accepts  as  a  fact  the  existence  of  various  classes 
of  Negroes  self-respecting  and  worthy  of  the  respect  of 
others;  and  he  believes,  on  the  whole,  that  the  colored 
race  deserve  commendation.  "The  Negro  has  not  be- 
haved unnaturally,"  he  says ;  "  he  has,  indeed,  in  the  main 
behaved  well."  The  main  difficulty  with  Mr.  Page's  book 
is  that  it  fails  to  go  to  the  bottom  of  the  causes  which 
underlie  the  trouble;  and  that  while  admitting  the  fact 
that  a  considerable  fraction  of  the  negro  race  is  improv- 
ing, he  sees  no  ultimate  solution.  He  suggests  but  three 

12 


MATERIALS 

alternatives:  removal,  which  he  admits  to  be  impossible; 
amalgamation,  which  is  equally  unthinkable;  and  an  ab- 
solute separation  of  social  and  apparently  of  economic 
life,  which  could  be  accomplished  only  by  turning  over 
definite  regions  for  negro  occupation.  Starting  out  with 
undoubted  good  will  to  the  black  race,  the  writer  ends  with 
little  hope  of  a  distinct  bettering  of  conditions. 

Quite  a  different  point  of  view  is  William  Benjamin 
Smith's  "The  Color  Line— A  Brief  in  Behalf  of  the 
Unborn"  (1905),  which  is  based  on  the  assertion  that 
the  Negro  is  no  part  of  the  human  race  and  hence  that 
amalgamation  is  a  crime  against  nature.  The  general 
trend  of  Professor  Smith's  book  is  an  argument,  somewhat 
technical  and  not  convincing,  that  the  blackman  is  phys- 
ically, mentally,  and  morally  so  different  from  the  white 
man  that  he  may  be  set  outside  the  community.  This 
was  of  course  the  argument  for  slavery,  and  if  it  be  true, 
is  still  an  argument  for  peonage  or  some  other  recognized 
position  of  dependency.  From  this  deduction,  however, 
Smith  sheers  off;  he  uses  the  inferiority  of  the  Negro 
chiefly  as  an  argument  against  the  mixture  of  the  races, 
which  he  believes  to  be  a  danger;  and  he  makes  an  in- 
genious distinction  between  the  present  mixture  in  which 
the  fathers  were  Whites  and  a  possible  future  amalgama- 
tion in  which  the  fathers  might  be  Negroes. 

The  most  suggestive  recent  study  of  the  negro  ques- 
tion is  Edgar  Gardner  Murphy's  "  Problems  of  the  Pres- 
ent South"  (1904).  Mr.  Murphy  is  an  Alabamian,  very 
familiar  with  Southern  conditions.  While  not  optimistic 
— nobody  in  the  South  is  optimistic  on  the  race  question 
— he  recognizes  the  possibility  of  a  much  better  race  feel- 
ing than  the  present  one.  It  is  interesting  to  see  that  this 
man  who,  as  champion  of  the  movement  against  child  labor 

13 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

in  the  South,  has  been  so  successful  in  relieving  children 
of  a  terrible  burden,  feels  sure  that  the  worst  thing  that 
can  be  done  for  the  community  is  to  keep  the  Negro 
ignorant.  He  is  perfectly  willing  to  face  the  issue  that 
those  who  show  the  qualities  of  manhood  should  have  the 
reward  of  manhood,  namely,  the  right  to  participate  in 
politics ;  and  the  acknowledgment  of  that  right  he  says  does 
not  imply  race  fusion.  He  gives  up  nothing  of  his  South- 
ern birthright,  and  courageously  asserts  the  ability  of  his 
section  to  work  out  its  problem  for  itself. 

Genial  in  tone,  full  of  the  ripe  thought  of  an  accom- 
plished writer  is  William  Garrott  Brown,  "  The  Lower 
South"  (1902),  which  is  not  a  discussion  of  the  race 
question  so  much  as  of  the  character  and  point  of  view 
of  the  planter  before  the  Civil  War  and  the  Southern 
gentleman  since  that  time,  a  plea  for  a  sympathetic  un- 
derstanding of  the  real  difficulties  of  the  South  and  its 
sense  of  responsibility. 

These  five  books  are  proof  not  only  that  there  is  wide 
divergence  of  views,  but  also  that  genuine  Southern  men, 
strongly  loyal  to  their  own  section,  can  set  an  example 
of  moderation  of  speech,  breadth  of  view,  and  willingness 
to  accept  and  to  promote  a  settlement  of  the  Southern 
question  through  the  elevation  of  the  people,  white  and 
black,  who  have  ultimate  power  over  that  question. 

In  slavery  days  almost  all  the  discussion  of  race  ques- 
tions came  from  the  Whites,  Southern  or  Northern.  Now, 
there  is  a  school  of  negro  controversialists  and  observers, 
several  of  whom  have  had  the  highest  advantages  of  edu- 
cation and  of  a  personal  acquaintance  with  the  problems 
which  they  discuss,  and  thus  possess  some  advantages  over 
many  white  writers.  About  twenty  years  ago  George  W. 
Williams  published  his  "  History  of  the  Negro  Race  in 

14 


MATEKIALS 

America"  (1883),  which,  though  to  a  large  degree  a  com- 
pilation, is  a  respectable  and  useful  book.  Another  writer, 
William  H.  Thomas,  in  his  "The  American  Negro" 
(1901),  has  made  admissions  with  regard  to  the  moral 
qualities  of  his  fellow  Negroes  which  have  been  widely 
taken  up  and  quoted  by  anti-Negro  writers.  Charles  W. 
Chesnutt,  in  several  books  of  collected  stories,  of  which 
"The  Conjure  Woman"  (1899)  is  the  liveliest,  and  in 
two  novels,  "The  House  Behind  the  Cedars"  (1900)  and 
the  "Marrow  of  Tradition"  (1901),  has  criticised  the 
rigid  separation  of  races.  No  man  feels  more  keenly  the 
race  distinctions  than  one  like  Chesnutt,  more  Caucasian 
than  African  in  his  make-up.  One  of  the  best  of  their 
writers  is  Kelly  Miller,  who  has  contributed  nearly  fifty 
articles  to  various  periodicals  upon  the  race  problems; 
and  in  humor,  good  temper,  and  appreciation  of  the  real 
issues,  shows  himself  often  superior  to  the  writers  whom 
he  criticises.  The  most  systematic  discussion  of  the  race 
by  one  of  themselves  is  William  A.  Sinclair's  "  The  After- 
math of  Slavery"  (1905),  which,  though  confused  in  ar- 
rangement and  unscientific  in  form,  is  an  excellent  sum- 
mary of  the  arguments  in  favor  of  the  negro  race  and  the 
Negroes'  political  privileges. 

The  most  eminent  man  whom  the  African  race  in 
America  has  produced  is  Booker  T.  Washington,  the 
well-known  president  of  Tuskegee.  In  addition  to  his 
numerous  addresses  and  his  personal  influence,  he  has  con- 
tributed to  the  discussion  several  volumes,  partly  auto- 
biographic and  partly  didactic.  His  "  Up  from  Slavery  " 
(1901)  is  a  remarkable  story  of  his  own  rise  from  the 
deepest  obscurity  to  a  place  of  great  influence.  In  three 
other  volumes,  "Character  Building"  (1902),  "Work- 
ing with  the  Hands"  (1904),  and  "The  Negro  in  Busi- 

15 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

ness"  (1907),  he  has  widened  his  moral  influence  upon 
his  race.  "The  Future  of  the  American  Negro"  (1899) 
is  the  only  volume  in  which  Washington  discusses  the  race 
problem  as  a  whole;  and  his  advice  here,  as  in  all  his 
public  utterances,  is  for  the  Negro  to  show  himself  so 
thrifty  and  so  useful  that  the  community  cannot  get  on 
without  him. 

Paul  L.  Dunbar,  the  late  negro  poet,  contented  him- 
self with  his  irresistible  fun  and  his  pathos  without  deep 
discussions  of  problems.  The  most  distinguished  literary 
man  of  the  race  is  W.  E.  Burghardt  DuBois,  an  A.B.  and 
Ph.D.  of  Harvard,  who  studied  several  years  in  Germany, 
and  as  Professor  of  Sociology  in  Atlanta  University  has 
had  an  unusual  opportunity  to  study  his  people.  Be- 
sides many  addresses  and  numerous  articles,  he  has  con- 
tributed to  the  discussion  his  "  Souls  of  Black  Folk " 
(1903),  which,  in  a  style  that  places  him  among  the  best 
writers  of  English  to-day  in  America,  passionately  speaks 
the  suffering  of  the  highly  endowed  and  highly  educated 
mulatto  who  is  shut  out  of  the  kingdom  of  kindred  spirits 
only  by  a  shadow  of  color.  Witness  such  phrases  as  these : 
"To  be  a  poor  man  is  hard,  but  to  be  a  poor  race  in 
a  land  of  dollars  is  the  very  bottom  of  hardships  " ;  or  this, 
"  The  sincere  and  passionate  belief  that  somewhere  be- 
tween men  and  cattle,  God  created  a  tertium  quid,  and 
called  it  a  Negro, — a  clownish,  simple  creature,  at  times 
even  lovable  within  its  limitation,  but  straitly  fore  or- 
dained to  walk  within  the  Veil." 

The  three  groups  just  sketched,  the  violent  Southern- 
ers, moderate  Southerners,  and  negro  writers,  each  from 
its  own  point  of  view  has  aimed  to  study  the  complicated 
subject,  to  classify  and  generalize.  Nearly  all  the  writers 
are  sources,  in  that  they  are  conversant  with  the  South 

16 


MATERIALS 

and  have  a  personal  acquaintance  with  its  problems;  but 
their  books  are  discussions  rather  than  materials.  What 
is  now  most  needed  for  a  solid  understanding  of  the  ques- 
tion is  monographic  first-hand  studies  of  limited  scope 
in  selected  areas.  Unfortunately  that  material  is  still 
scanty.  Professor  DuBois  has  made  a  series  of  investi- 
gations as  to  the  conditions  of  the  Negro;  first,  his  elabo- 
rate monograph,  "  The  Philadelphia  Negro  "  (published 
by  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  1899),  then  a  series 
of  sociological  studies  in  the  "  Atlanta  University  Pub- 
lications," and  several  "Bulletins"  published  by  the 
United  States  Department  of  Labor,  notably  "  Census 
Bulletin  No.  8:  Negroes  in  the  United  States"  (1904). 
He  has  thus  made  himself  a  leading  authority  upon  the 
actual  conditions,  particularly  of  the  negro  farmer.  At 
Atlanta  University  and  also  at  Hampton,  Va.,  are  held 
annual  conferences,  the  proceedings  of  which  are  pub- 
lished every  year,  including  a  large  amount  of  first-hand 
material  on  present  conditions.  One  Northern  white 
man,  Carl  Kelsey,  has  addressed  himself  to  this  problem 
in  his  "The  Negro  Farmer"  (1903),  which  is  a  careful 
study  of  the  conditions  of  the  Negroes  in  tidewater,  Vir- 
ginia. 

One  practical  Southern  cotton  planter  has  devoted 
much  time  and  attention  to  the  scientific  study  of  the 
conditions  on  his  own  plantation  and  elsewhere  as  a  con- 
tribution toward  a  judgment  of  the  race  problem.  This 
is  Alfred  H.  Stone,  of  Greenville,  Miss.,  who  has  pub- 
lished half  a  dozen  monographs,  several  of  which  arc 
gathered  into  a  volume,  under  the  title  "  Studies  in  the 
American  Race  Problem"  (1908).  He  is  now  engaged, 
under  the  auspices  of  the  Carnegie  Institution,  on  a  study 
of  the  whole  question.  He  has  visited  several  Southern 

17 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

states  and  the  West  Indies,  and  brings  to  his  inquiries  the 
point  of  view  of  an  employer  of  Negroes  who  wishes  them 
well  and  sees  the  interest  of  his  country  in  the  improve- 
ment of  negro  labor.  Perhaps  his  judgment  is  somewhat 
affected  by  the  special  conditions  of  Mississippi  and  of  his 
own  neighborhood,  in  which  the  Negroes  are  very  numer- 
ous and  perhaps  more  than  usually  disturbing.  The  re- 
sults of  his  latest  investigations  will  appear  under  the  title 
"  Race  Relations  in  America " ;  and  may  be  expected  to 
be  the  most  thorough  contribution  to  the  subject  made  by 
any  writer. 

Among  less  formal  publications  are  the  negro  periodi- 
cals, which  are  very  numerous  and  include  Alexander's 
Magazine  and  a  few  other  well-written  and  well-edited 
summaries  of  things  of  special  interest  to  the  race.  The 
whole  question  has  become  so  interesting  that  several  of 
the  great  magazines  have  taken  it  up.  The  World's  Work 
devoted  its  number  of  June,  1907,  almost  wholly  to  the 
South;  and  the  American  Magazine  published  in  1907-8 
a  series  of  articles  by  Ray  Stannard  Baker  on  the  subject. 
In  1904  the  Outlook  published  a  series  of  seven  articles 
by  Ernest  H.  Abbott  based  upon  personal  study.  An 
interesting  contribution  is  the  so-called  "  Autobiography 
of  a  Southerner,"  by  "  Nicholas  Worth,"  published  in  the 
Atlantic  Monthly  in  1906.  Whoever  Nicholas  Worth  may 
be,  there  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  his  Southern  birth,  train- 
ing, and  understanding,  nor  of  his  excellent  style,  sense 
of  humor,  and  power  to  make  clear  the  growth  of  race 
feeling  in  the  South  since  the  Civil  War. 

All  these  and  many  other  printed  materials  are  at  the 
service  of  the  Northern  as  of  the  Southern  investigator. 
Among  their  contradictory  and  controversial  testimony 
may  be  discerned  various  cross  currents  of  thought;  and 

18 


their  statements  of  fact  and  the  results  of  their  researches 
form  a  body  of  material  which  may  be  analyzed  as  a  basis 
for  new  deductions.  But  nobody  can  rely  wholly  on 
printed  copy  for  knowledge  of  such  complicated  questions. 
Books  cannot  be  cross-examined  nor  compelled  to  fill  up 
gaps  in  their  statements.  The  investigator  of  the  South 
must  learn  the  region  and  the  people  so  as  to  take  in  his 
own  impressions  at  first  hand.  Printed  materials  are 
the  woof;  but  the  warp  of  the  fabric  is  the  geography  of 
the  South,  the  distribution  of  soil,  the  character  of  the 
crops,  the  habits  of  the  people,  their  thrift  and  unthrift, 
their  own  ideas  as  to  their  difficulties. 

Yet  let  no  one  deceive  himself  as  to  what  may  be 
learned,  even  by  wide  acquaintance  or  long  residence.  It 
is  not  so  long  ago  that  a  Southern  lady  who  had  lived  for 
ten  years  in  the  neighborhood  of  Boston  was  amazed  to 
be  told  that  such  Massachusetts  officers  as  Eobert  G.  Shaw, 
during  the  Civil  War,  actually  came  from  good  families; 
she  had  always  understood  that  people  of  position  would 
not  take  commissions  in  the  hireling  Federal  army.  If 
such  errors  can  be  made  as  to  the  North,  like  misconcep- 
tions may  arise  as  to  the  South.  All  that  has  ever  been 
written  about  the  Southern  question  must  be  read  in  the 
light  of  the  environment,  the  habits  of  thought,  and  the 
daily  life  of  the  Southern  people,  white  and  black. 


CHAPTER   II 

THE   SOUTHLAND 

IN  what  do  the  Southern  States  differ  as  to  extent  and 
climate  from  other  parts  of  the  United  States  ?  First 
of  all,  what  does  the  Southland  include  ?  Previous  to 
the  Civil  War,  when  people  said  "  the  South  "  they  usually 
meant  the  fifteen  states  in  which  slavery  was  established. 
Since  1865  some  inroads  and  additions  to  that  group  have 
been  made.  Maryland  is  rather  a  middle  state  than  a 
Southern;  West  Virginia  has  been  cut  off  from  the  South, 
and  is  now  essentially  Western,  as  is  Missouri;  but  the 
new  State  of  Oklahoma  is  a  community  imbued  with  a 
distinct  Southern  spirit.  For  many  reasons  the  Northern 
tier  of  former  slave-holding  states  differ  from  their  South- 
ern neighbors ;  and  in  this  book  less  attention  will  be  given 
to  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee 
than  to  their  South-lying  neighbors,  because  they  are  be- 
coming to  a  considerable  degree  mineral  and  manufac- 
turing communities,  in  which  the  negro  problem  is  of 
diminishing  significance.  The1  true  Southland,  the  region 
in  which  conditions  are  most  disturbed  and  an  adjustment 
of  races  is  most  necessary,  where  cotton  is  most  significant, 
is  the  belt  of  seven  states  from  South  Carolina  to  Texas, 
to  which  the  term  "  Lower  South  "  has  often  been  applied. 
Physically,  the  Southern  States  differ  much  both  from 
their  Northeastern  and  their  Northwestern  neighbors. 

20 


THE    SOUTHLAND 

Xo  broken  country  like  New  England  reaches  down  to  the 
coast;  no  rocky  headlands  flank  deep  natural  harbors; 
there  are,  except  in  central  Alabama  and  in  Texas,  no 
treeless  prairies.  Three  of  these  states,  South  Carolina, 
Georgia,  and  Alabama,  include  mountain  regions  which, 
though  interesting  in  themselves,  are  little  related  to  the 
great  problem  of  race  relations  and  of  race  hostility. 
Physically,  they  protect  the  cotton  belt  from  the  North, 
and  thus  affect  the  climate;  and  they  are  fountains  of 
water  power  as  yet  little  developed.  South  of  the  moun- 
tains and  thence  westward  through  northern  Mississippi, 
Louisiana,  and  Texas,  is  a  hill  region  which  is  from  every 
point  of  view  one  of  the  parts  of  the  South  most  interest- 
ing and  at  the  same  time  least  known  by  Northerners. 
This  is  the  traditional  home  of  the  Poor  Whites;  whose 
backwardness  is  in  itself  a  problem;  whose  industry  con- 
tributes much  more  than  the  world  has  been  prone  to 
allow  to  the  wealth  of  the  South;  and  whose  progress  is 
one  of  the  most  encouraging  things  in  the  present  situa- 
tion, for  they  furnish  the  major  part  of  the  Southern 
voters.  The  hills  are  still  heavily  wooded,  as  was  the  whole 
face  of  the  country  as  far  as  central  Texas,  when  it  was 
first  opened  up  by  Europeans.  The  hill  region  is  also  the 
theater  of  most  of  the  manufacturing  in  the  South,  and 
especially  of  the  cotton  mills. 

Below  the  hills  is  a  stretch  of  land,  much  of  it  allu- 
vial, extending  from  lower  North  Carolina  to  central 
Texas,  which  is  the  most  characteristic  part  of  the  South, 
because  it  is  the  approved  area  of  cotton  planting,  the  site 
of  great  plantations,  and  the  home  of  the  densest  negro 
population.  The  central  part  of  it  is  commonly  called 
The  Black  Belt  originally  because  of  the  color  of  the  soil, 
more  recently  as  a  tribute  to  the  color  of  the  tillers  of  the 

21 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

soil,  for  here  may  be  found  counties  in  which  the  Negroes 
are  ten  to  one,  and  areas  in  which  they  are  a  hundred  to 
one.  It  includes  some  prosperous  cities,  like  Montgomery 
and  Shreveport,  and  many  thriving  and  increasing  towns; 
but  it  is  preeminently  an  agricultural  region,  in  which  is 
to  be  settled  the  momentous  question  whether  the  Negro 
is  to  stay  on  the  land,  and  can  progress  as  an  agricultural 
laborer. 

The  seacoast,  along  the  Atlantic  and  Gulf,  is  again 
different  from  the  Black  Belt.  It  abounds  in  islands,  some 
of  which,  especially  the  Sea  Islands  of  South  Carolina 
and  Georgia,  present  the  most  interesting  negro  condi- 
tions to  be  found  in  the  South.  In  this  strip  lie  also  the 
Southern  ports,  of  which  the  principal  ones  are  Norfolk, 
Wilmington,  Charleston,  Savannah,  Brunswick,  Jackson- 
ville, Pensacola,  Mobile,  New  Orleans,  and  Galveston. 
With  the  exception  of  Atlanta,  Montgomery,  Birmingham, 
and  Memphis,  and  the  Texan  cities,  this  list  includes 
nearly  all  the  populous  cities  of  the  Lower  South.  The 
ports  are  supported  not  from  the  productions  of  their 
neighborhood,  but  as  out-ports  from  the  interior.  Three  of 
them,  Savannah,  New  Orleans,  and  Galveston,  have  a  large 
European  commerce;  the  others  depend  upon  the  coasting 
trade,  the  fruit  industry,  and  the  beginnings  of  the  com- 
merce to  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  which  everybody  in  the 
South  expects  is  to  become  enormous. 

In  one  respect  the  Southland  and  the  Northland  were 
originally  alike,  namely,  that  they  were  both  carpeted  with 
a  growth  of  heavy  timber,  the  pine  and  its  brethren  in 
some  localities,  hard  woods  in  others.  Here  a  divergence 
has  come  about  which  has  many  effects  on  the  South;  by 
1860,  outside  the  mountains,  there  was  little  uncleared 
land  in  the  North,  while  most  of  the  hill  region,  and  large 

22 


THE    SOUTHLAND 

parts  of  the  Black  Belt  and  coast,  in  the  South  were  still 
untouched  by  the  ax.  In  the  last  twenty-five  years  great 
inroads  have  been  made  on  the  Southern  forests,  and  clear- 
ing is  going  on  everywhere  on  a  large  scale.  Nevertheless, 
a  very  considerable  proportion  of  the  Southern  Whites  and 
many  Negroes  still  live  in  the  woods,  and  have  retained 
some  of  the  habits  of  the  frontier.  Population  is  com- 
monly sparse;  pretentious  names  of  villages  on  the  map 
prove  to  mark  hamlets  of  two  or  three  houses;  nearly  all 
the  country  churches  are  simply  set  down  at  crossroads, 
as  are  the  schoolhouses  and  mournful  little  cemeteries. 
The  good  effects  of  frontier  life  are  there,  genuine  democ- 
racy, neighborhood  feeling,  hospitality,  courage,  and  hon- 
esty; but  along  with  them  are  seen  the  drawbacks  of  the 
frontier:  ignorance,  uncouthness,  boisterousness,  lawless- 
ness, a  lack  of  enterprise,  and  contempt  for  the  experience 
of  older  communities. 

One  of  the  characteristics  not  only  of  the  lower  classes, 
but  of  all  sections  of  the  South,  is  the  love  of  open-air  life ; 
the  commonest  thing  on  the  roads  in  any  part  of  the  South 
is  the  man  with  a  sporting  gun,  and  a  frequent  sight  is 
a  pack  of  dogs  escorting  men  on  horseback  who  are  going 
out  to  beat  up  deer.  In  some  parts  of  the  back  country  and 
in  many  parts  of  the  Black  Belt  the  roads  are  undrivable 
several  months  of  the  year,  and  people  have  to  find  their 
way  on  horseback.  So  common  is  the  habit  of  horseback 
riding  that  a  mountain  girl  to  whom  a  Northern  lady 
lent  a  book  on  etiquette  returned  it  with  the  remark: 
"  Hit  seems  a  right  smart  sort  of  a  book,  but  hit  is  so 
simple ;  why,  hit  tells  you  how  to  sit  on  a  horse !  "  As  will 
be  seen  in  the  next  chapter,  the  frontier  is  ceasing  to  be, 
but  many  of  its  consequences  will  long  be  left  impressed 
upon  Southern  character.  Meanwhile  the  woods  are  turn- 

23 


THE    SOUTHERN   SOUTH 

ing  into  dollars,  and  a  farming  community  is  emerging 
not  unlike  that  of  the  hill  regions  of  western  Pennsylvania 
or  southern  Ohio. 

The  physical  respects  in  which  the  South  most  differs 
from  the  North  are  its  climate  and  its  products.  The 
South  enjoys  an  unusual  combination  of  climatic  condi- 
tions; it  is  a  subtropical  country  in  which  can  be  raised 
cotton,  rice,  sugar,  yams,  and  citrous  fruits;  it  is  abun- 
dantly watered  with  copious  rainfall  and  consequent 
streams ;  at  the  same  time,  it  is  subject  to  occasional  frosts 
which,  however  destructive  of  the  hopes  of  orange  growers, 
are  supposed  to  be  favorable  to  cotton.  Not  one  of  the 
Southern  crops  is  a  monopoly,  even  in  the  United  States; 
they  are  raising  cotton  and  oranges  in  California,  rice  in 
the  Philippines,  sugar  in  Porto  Eico,  and  tobacco  in  Con- 
necticut; but  the  South  is  better  fitted  for  these  staples 
than  any  other  section  of  the  Union,  and  in  addition  can 
raise  every  Northern  crop,  except  maple  sugar,  including 
corn,  oats,  buckwheat,  considerable  quantities  of  wheat, 
barley,  rye,  and  garden  fruits.  Every  year  trucking — that 
is,  the  raising  of  vegetables — grows  more  important  in  the 
South ;  and  Texas  still  remains  a  great  cattle  state.  There 
is,  however,  little  dairying  anywhere,  and  it  cannot  be  too 
clearly  kept  in  mind  that  the  great  agricultural  staple,  the 
dramatic  center  of  Southern  life,  is  "making  cotton." 

Though  agriculture  is  the  predominant  interest  in  the 
South,  it  is  coming  forward  rapidly  in  other  pursuits,  and 
is  putting  an  end  to  differences  which  for  near  a  century 
have  marked  off  the  two  sections.  Down  to  the  Civil  War 
the  South  hardly  touched  its  subterranean  wealth  in  coal 
and  iron,  and  knew  nothing  of  its  petroleum  or  its  stores 
of  phosphate  rock.  Mining  has  now  become  a  gieat  in- 
dustry, especially  in  Alabama,  and  the  states  north  and 

24 


THE    SOUTHLAND 

northwestward  to  Virginia.  The  manufacture  of  iron  has 
kept  pace,  and  indeed  has  stimulated  the  development  of 
the  mines;  and  Birmingham  is  one  of  the  world's  centers 
in  the  iron  trade.  Cotton  mills  also  have  sprung  up ;  and, 
as  will  be  shown  later,  think  they  are  disputing  the  su- 
premacy of  New  England.  Though  the  Black  Belt  shares 
little  in  these  industries,  or  in  the  city  building  which 
comes  along  with  them,  it  has  two  local  industries,  namely, 
the  ginning  of  cotton  and  the  manufacture  of  cotton-seed 
oil,  together  with  a  large  fertilizer  industry. 

The  South  is  not  without  drawbacks  such  as  all  over 
the  world  are  the  penalty  for  the  fruitfulness  of  semi- 
tropical  regions.  While,  with  the  exception  of  the  lower 
Mississippi,  perhaps  no  day  in  the  summer  is  as  hot  as 
some  New  York  days,  the  heat  in  the  Lower  South  is 
steady  and  unyielding;  and  though  the  Negroes  and  white 
laborers  keep  on  with  little  interruption  and  sunstrokes  are 
almost  unknown,  the  heat  affects  the  powers,  at  least  of 
the  Whites,  to  give  their  best  service.  Colleges  and  schools 
find  it  harder  to  keep  up  systematic  study  throughout  the 
academic  year  than  in  similar  Northern  institutions. 

The  South  is  much  more  infested  by  poisonous  snakes, 
ticks,  fleas,  and  other  like  pests  than  the  North,  and 
though  the  climate  is  so  favorable  for  an  all-the-year-round 
outdoor  life  these  creatures  put  some  limitations  on  free 
movement.  The  low  country  also  abounds  in  swamps, 
many  of  them  miles  in  extent,  which  if  drained  might 
make  the  most  fertile  soil  in  the  world;  but,  as  they  lie, 
are  haunts  of  mosquitoes,  and  therefore  of  malaria.  Deaths 
by  malarial  fever,  which  are  almost  unknown  in  the  North, 
mount  up  to  some  hundreds  in  Southern  cities,  and  in 
the  lowlands,  particularly  of  the  Mississippi  and  the  Sea 
Islands,  every  white  new-comer  must  pay  the  penalty  of 

25 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

fever  before  he  can  live  comfortably.  The  people  accept 
these  drawbacks  good-humoredly  and  often  ignore  them, 
but  they  make  life  different  from  that  of  most  parts  of 
the  North. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  rivers  of  the  South,  flowing 
from  the  wide  extended  mountains  with  their  abundant 
rainfall,  make  a  series  of  abundant  water  powers.  In  the 
upper  mountains  there  are  a  few  waterfalls  of  a  height 
from  twenty  to  two  hundred  feet,  but  the  great  source  of 
power  is  where  the  considerable  streams  reach  the  "  fall 
line,"  below  which  they  run  unimpeded  to  the  sea.  Places 
like  Spartanburg  and  Columbia  in  South  Carolina,  and 
Augusta  and  Columbus  in  Georgia,  have  large  powers 
which  are  making  them  great  manufacturing  centers.  No 
part  of  the  United  States  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains 
is  so  rich  in  undeveloped  water  powers  as  is  the  South. 

This  prosperity  extends  also  to  the  smaller  cities  which 
are  now  springing  up  in  profusion  throughout  the  South. 
Even  in  the  Black  Belt  there  are  centers  of  local  trade; 
and  forwarding  points  like  Monroe  in  Louisiana,  Green- 
ville in  Mississippi,  and  Americus  in  Georgia,  are  concen- 
trators of  accumulating  wealth  and  also  of  new  means  of 
education  and  refinement.  In  this  respect,  as  in  many 
others,  the  South  is  going  through  the  experience  of  the 
Northwestern  states  forty  years  ago;  and  although  its 
urban  population  is  not  likely  ever  to  be  so  large  in  pro- 
portion as  in  those  states,  a  change  is  coming  over  the 
habits  of  thought  and  the  means  of  livelihood  of  the  whole 
Southern  people. 

In  Southern  cities  large  and  small,  new  and  old,  the 
visitor  is  attracted  by  the  excellent  architectural  taste  of 
most  of  the  public  buildings,  of  many  of  the  new  hotels 
and  modern  business  blocks,  and  of  the  stately  colonnaded 

26 


THE    SOOTHLAXD 

private  houses.  Texas  boasts  a  superb  capitol  at  Austin, 
one  of  the  most  notable  buildings  of  the  country,  which 
will  perhaps  be  thought  abnormal  in  some  parts  of  the 
North,  since  it  was  built  without  jobbery  and  brought  with 
it  no  train  of  criminal  suits  against  the  state  officers  who 
supervised  its  erection.  The  less  progressive  state  of  Mis- 
sissippi has  a  new  marble  capitol  at  Jackson,  which  is  as 
attractive  as  the  beautiful  statehouse  at  Providence.  The 
same  sense  of  proportion  and  dignity  is  shown  in  many 
smaller  places,  such  as  Opelika,  Alabama,  or  Shreveport, 
Louisiana,  which  contain  beautiful  churches  and  county 
buildings  appropriate  and  dignified. 

The  cities  in  many  ways  affect  the  white  race,  chiefly 
for  the  better;  they  furnish  the  appliances  of  intellectual 
growth,  tolerable  common  schools,  public  high  schools,  pub- 
lic libraries,  and  a  body  of  educated  and  thinking  people. 
In  the  cities  are  found  most  of  the  new  business  and  pro- 
fessional class  who  are  doing  much  to  rejuvenate  the 
South.  The  interior  cities  much  more  than  in  former 
times  are  centers  for  the  planting  areas  in  their  neighbor- 
hood; and  through  the  cities  are  promoted  those  relations 
of  place  with  place,  of  state  with  state,  of  section  with 
section,  of  nation  with  nation,  which- broaden  human  life. 
Unfortunately  in  the  cities,  although  their  negro  popula- 
tion is  less  in  proportion  than  in  the  open  country,  the  race 
feeling  is  bitter;  and  some  of  the  most  serious  race  dis- 
turbances during  the  last  twenty  years  have  been  in  large 
places;  although  the  presence  of  a  police  force  ought  to 
keep  such  trouble  in  check. 

Still  the  South  remains  a  rural  community.     Leaving 

out  of  account  Louisville,  Baltimore,  and  St.  Louis,  which, 

although  within  the   boundaries   of  slave-holding  states, 

were  built  up  chiefly  by  middle-state   or  western   state 

3  27 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

trade,  the  ante-bellum  South  contained  only  three  notable 
cities:  Richmond,  Charleston,  and  New  Orleans.  As  late 
as  1880  out  of  eight  million  people  in  the  lower  South 
only  half  a  million  lived  in  cities  of  eight  thousand  in- 
habitants and  upward.  In  1900,  though  a  third  of  the 
people  of  the  whole  United  States  lived  in  cities,  the  urban 
population  of  the  states  extending  from  South  Carolina 
to  Texas  was  only  about  a  ninth.  Since  that  time  the 
cities  have  been  going  forward  more  rapidly ;  but  the  drift 
out  of  the  open  country  is  less  marked  than  the  similar 
movement  in  the  Northern  states,  and  the  influence  of 
foreign  immigration  is  negligible. 

Nevertheless  the  cities  have  become  a  distinct  feature 
of  the  New  South ;  and  their  healthy  growth  is  one  of  the 
most  hopeful  tokens  of  prosperity.  The  largest  is  of 
course  New  Orleans,  which  has  now  passed  the  three  hun- 
dred thousand  mark  and,  in  the  estimation  of  its  people, 
is  on  the  way  to  surpass  New  York  City.  What  else  does 
it  mean  when  the  Southern  port  in  one  year  ships  more 
wheat  than  the  Northern?  But  New  Orleans  is  only  the 
fourteenth  in  size  of  the  American  cities,  and  the  Lower 
South  has  only  one  other,  Atlanta,  which  goes  into  the  list 
of  the  fifty  largest  cities  of  the  Union. 

Though  these  figures  show  conclusively  that  the  South 
is  not  an  urban  region,  they  do  not  set  forth  the  activity, 
the  civic  life,  and  the  prospective  growth  of  the  Southern 
cities.  Charleston  is  still  the  most  attractive  place  of  pil- 
grimage on  the  North  American  continent,  beautiful  in 
situation,  romantic  in  association,  abounding  in  people  of 
mind,  and  much  more  active  in  a  business  way  than  the 
world  supposes;  Savannah  is  a  seaport,  with  a  few  inci- 
dental manufactures,  but  one  of  the  busiest  places  on  the 
Atlantic  coast;  Mobile  has  become  metropolitan  in  its 

28 


THE    SOUTHLAND 

handsome  buildings,  and  in  a  spirit  of  enterprise  which 
the. Yankees  have  not  always  been  willing  to  admit  to  be 
a  Southern  trait.  Atlanta  is  the  clearing  house  of  many 
financial  enterprises,  such  as  the  great  life  insurance  com- 
panies and  trust  companies,  and  has  become  a  wholesale 
center.  While  three  other  interior  cities  of  this  region, 
Columbia,  Montgomery,  and  Birmingham,  are  among  the 
active  and  progressive  places  of  the  country.  In  Texas 
there  is  certain  to  be  a  large  urban  population,  and  Hous- 
ton, San  Antonio,  and  Dallas  have  not  yet  decided  among 
themselves  which  is  to  be  the  Chicago  of  the  South. 


CHAPTER   III 

THE   POOR  WHITE 

THE  broad  and  beautiful  Southland  is  peopled  by 
about  thirty  million  human  beings  (26,000,000  in 
1900),  who  constitute  the  "  South  "  as  a  community 
conscious  of  a  life  separate  in  many  respects  from  that  of 
the  North.  What  is  there  in  these  thirty  millions  which 
sets  them  apart?  First  of  all  is  the  sharp  division  into 
two  races — two  thirds  of  the  people  Whites  and  one  third 
Negroes,  which  in  uncounted  open  and  obscure  ways  makes 
the  South  unlike  any  other  country  in  the  world.  In  the 
second  place  account  must  be  taken  of  the  subdivision  of 
the  white  people  into  social  and  economic  classes — a  divi- 
sion common  in  all  lands,  but  peculiar  in  the  South  be- 
cause of  the  relations  of  the  strata  to  each  other. 

An  analysis  of  the  elements  of  white  population  may 
begin  with  the  less  prosperous  and  progressive  portion 
commonly  called  the  Poor  Whites.  As  used  in  the  South 
the  term  means  lowlanders;  and  it  is  necessary  to  set  off 
for  separate  treatment  the  mountaineers,  who  are,  if  not 
typical  Southerners,  at  least  unlike  anything  in  the  North. 
No  other  inhabitants  of  the  United  States  are  so  near  the 
eighteenth  century  as  the  people  to  whom  an  observer  has 
given  the  name  of  "  Our  contemporary  ancestors."  For 
nowhere  else  in  the  United  States  is  there  a  distinct 
mountain  people.  The  New  England  mountaineers  live 

30 


THE    POOE   WHITE 

nowhere  higher  than  1,500  feet  above  the  sea,  and  have 
no  traits  which  mark  them  from  their  neighbors  in  the 
lower  lands;  in  the  Kocky  Mountains  the  population  is 
chiefly  made  up  of  miners;  the  Sierra  Nevadas  are  little 
peopled;  in  the  South  alone,  where  some  elevated  valleys 
have  been  settled  for  two  hundred  years,  is  there  an  Amer- 
ican mountain  folk,  with  a  local  dialect  and  social  system 
and  character. 

The  mountains  and  their  inhabitants  are  a  numerous 
and  significant  part  of  the  population  in  all  the  upper 
tier  of  the  Southern  States,  including  Oklahoma;  and 
though  they  are  much  less  numerous  in  the  lower  South, 
they  furnish  a  large  body  of  voters,  and  their  slow  prog- 
ress is  in  itself  a  difficult  problem.  The  Appalachian 
range,  from  Canada  to  Alabama,  is  made  up  of  belts  of 
parallel  ridges ;  in  a  few  places,  such  as  Mount  Washington 
in  New  Hampshire,  and  Mount  Mitchell  in  North  Caro- 
lina, they  rise  above  6,000  feet,  but  they  include  com- 
paratively few  elevations  over  3,000  feet,  and  no  lofty 
plateaus.  Between  the  ridges  and  in  pockets  or  coves 
of  the  mountains  are  lands  that  are  easily  cultivated,  and 
in  many  places  the  mountains,  when  cleared,  are  fertile 
to  their  summits.  The  scenic  culmination  of  the  Ap- 
palachians is  Blowing  Rock  in  North  Carolina,  3,500 
feet  above  the  sea,  where  the  rifleman  without  stirring 
from  one  spot  may  drop  his  bullets  into  the  Catawba  flow- 
ing into  the  Atlantic,  the  New,  which  is  a  head  water 
of  the  Ohio,  and  the  Watauga,  a  branch  of  the  Tennessee. 
Above  this  spot  rises,  3,000  feet  higher,  the  mass  of  Grand- 
father's Mountain;  and  below  is  an  enchanting  series  of 
mountains,  range  after  range,  breaking  off  to  the  eastern 
foothills. 

Within  the  Appalachians,  south  of  Pennsylvania,  dwell 
31 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

about  two  and  a  half  million  people  of  whom  but  a  few 
thousands  are  of  African  or  European  birth.  These  are 
true  Americans,  if  there  are  any,  for  they  are  the  descend- 
ants of  people  who  were  already  in  the  country  as  mucli 
as  a  century  and  a  half  ago.  In  a  Kentucky  churchyard 
may  be  found  such  names  as  Lucinda  Gentry,  John  Kin- 
dred, Simeon  Skinner,  and  William  Tudor.  Side  by  side 
stand  Scotch-Irish  names,  for  many  of  that  stock  drifted 
southwestward  from  Pennsylvania  into  these  mountains; 
and  in  the  oldest  burying  ground,  on  the  site  of  Daniel 
Boone's  Watauga  settlement,  the  first  interment  seems  to 
have  been  that  of  a  German.  Just  as  in  central  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  the  Valley  of  Virginia,  the  English,  Scotch- 
Irish,  and  Pennsylvania  Dutch  were  intermingled.  It  is 
an  error  to  suppose  that  these  highlanders  are  descended 
from  the  riffraff  of  the  colonial  South;  they  have  been 
crowded  back  into  the  unfavorable  parts  of  the  mountains 
because,  as  the  population  increased,  there  was  a  lack  of 
good  land;  and  the  least  vigorous  and  ambitious  of  them, 
though  sons  or  grandsons  of  stalwart  men,  have  been 
obliged  to  accept  the  worst  opportunities. 

The  life  of  the  Mountain  Whites  is  not  very  unlike 
that  of  New  England  in  the  seventeenth  century,  New 
York  in  the  eighteenth,  and  Minnesota  in  the  nineteenth 
century.  The  people  are  self-sustaining  in  that  they  build 
their  own  houses,  raise  their  own  food,  and  make  their 
own  clothing.  There  have  been  instances  where  in  the 
early  morning  a  sheep  was  trotting  about  wearing  a  pelt 
which  in  the  evening  a  mountaineer  was  wearing,  it  having 
been  sheared,  spun,  woven,  dyed,  cut,  made,  and  unfitted 
in  that  one  day.  Abraham  Lincoln,  as  a  boy  in  Indiana 
and  a  young  man  in  Illinois,  lived  the  same  kind  of  life 
that  these  people  are  now  going  through;  for  here  is  the 

32 


THE    POOR   WHITE 

last  refuge  of  the  American  frontier.  These  conditions 
seem  not  in  themselves  barbarous,  for  there  are  still  thou- 
sands of  Northern  people  who  in  childhood  inhabited  in- 
telligent and  well-to-do  communities  with  good  schools, 
in  which  most  of  the  families  still  made  their  own  soap 
and  sugar,  smoked  their  own  hams,  molded  their  own 
candles,  and  dyed  their  own  cloth,  where  the  great  spin- 
ning-wheel still  turned  and  the  little  wheel  whirred. 

The  Mountain  Whites,  however,  are  more  than  primi- 
tive or  even  colonial,  they  are  early  English;  at  least 
among  them  are  still  sung  and  handed  down  from  grand- 
mother to  child  Elizabethan  ballads.  Lord  Thomas  still 
hies  him  to  his  mother  to  know 

Whether  I  shall  marry  fair  Elender, 
Or  bring  the  brown  girl  home. 

Local  bards  also  compose  for  themselves  such  stirring 
ditties  as  "  Sourwood  Mounting." 

Chickens  a-crowin'  in  the  sourwood  mountain, 

Ho-de-ing-dang,  diddle-lal-la-da. 
So  many  pretty  girls  I  can't  count  'em, 

Ho-de-ing-dang,  diddle-lal-la-da. 

My  true  love  lives  up  in  the  head  of  a  holler, 
She  won't  come  and  I  won't  call  'er. 

My  true  love,  she's  a  black-eyed  daisy, 
If  I  don't  get  her,  I'll  go  crazy. 

The  most  unfavorable  mountain  conditions  are  fairly 
illustrated  by  eastern  Kentucky,  a  veritable  back  country. 
Along  the  roads  the  traveler  passes  a  number  of  one- 

33 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

room  houses,  without  glass  windows,  and  is  told  many 
tales  of  the  irregular  or  no-family  life  of  the  people.  Per- 
haps along  a  creek  he  chances  on  a  traditional  Mountain 
White  family,  such  as  Porte  Crayon  drew  fifty  years  ago, 
when  these  people  were  first  described  as  a  curiosity.  Be- 
low a  dirty  and  ill-favored  house,  down  under  the  bank 
on  the  shingle  near  the  river,  sits  a  family  of  five  people, 
all  ill-clothed  and  unclean;  a  blear-eyed  old  woman,  a 
younger  woman  with  a  mass  of  tangled  red  hair  hanging 
about  her  shoulders,  indubitably  suckling  a  baby;  a  little 
girl  with  the  same  auburn  evidence  of  Scotch  ancestry; 
a  boy,  and  a  younger  child,  all  gathered  about  a  fire  made 
among  some  bricks,  surrounding  a  couple  of  iron  sauce- 
pans, in  which  is  a  dirty  mixture  looking  like  mud,  but 
probably  warmed-up  sorghum  syrup,  which,  with  a  few 
pieces  of  corn  pone,  makes  their  breakfast.  A  counter- 
balance to  the  squalor  is  the  plump  and  pretty  girls  that 
appear  all  along  the  way,  with  the  usual  mountain  head- 
dress of  the  sunbonnet,  perched  at  a  killing  angle.  Such 
people  have  their  own  peculiarities  of  speech  like  the 
mountain  woman's  characterization  of  a  forlorn  country- 
seat:  "Warn't  hit  the  nighest  ter  nowhar  uv  ary  place 
ever  you's  at  ?  " 

The  miserable  family  described  above  are  a  fair  type 
of  what  a  writer  on  the  subject  calls  the  "  submerged 
tenth  among  the  mountaineers";  but  they  belong  to  the 
lowest  type,  to  which  those  who  know  them  best  give  no 
favorable  character ;  they  live  in  the  remotest  parts  of  the 
mountains,  in  the  rudest  cabins,  with  the  smallest  provi- 
sion of  accumulated  food.  Most  of  them  are  illiterate  and 
more  than  correspondingly  ignorant.  Some  of  them  had 
Indian  ancestors  and  a  few  bear  evidences  of  negro  blood. 
The  so-called  "  mountain-boomer,"  says  an  observer,  "  has 

34 


THE    POOR   WHITE 

little  self-respect  and  no  self-reliance.  ...  So  long  as  his 
corn  pile  lasts  the  '  cracker '  lives  in  contentment,  feast- 
ing on  a  sort  of  hoe  cake  made  of  grated  corn  meal  mixed 
with  salt  and  water  and  baked  before  the  hot  coals,  with 
addition  of  what  game  the  forest  furnishes  him  when  he 
can  get  up  the  energy  to  go  out  and  shoot  or  trap  it. 
.  .  .  The  irregularities  of  their  moral  lives  cause  them 
no  sense  of  shame.  .  .  .  But,  notwithstanding  these  low 
moral  conceptions,  they  are  of  an  intense  religious  excit- 
ability. .  .  .  They  license  and  ordain  their  own  preachers, 
who  are  no  more  intelligent  than  they  are  themselves,  but 
who  are  distinguished  by  special  ability  in  getting  people 
'  shouting  happy,'  or  in  *  shaking  the  sinner  over  the 
smoking  fires  of  hell  until  he  gets  religion.' >:  They  are  all 
users  of  tobacco — men,  women,  and  children.  They  smoke 
and  chew  and  "  dip  snuff."  .  .  .  Bathing  is  unknown  among 
them.  .  .  .  When  a  garment  is  put  on  once  it  is  there  to 
stay  until  it  falls  to  pieces.  The  washtub  is  practically  as 
little  known  among  them  as  the  bathtub.  .  .  . 

The  same  authority  has  abundant  praise  for  the  better 
type  of  the  mountaineer,  who  loves  the  open-air  life,  cares 
nothing  for  luxury,  and  "  has  raised  the  largest  average 
families  in  America  upon  the  most  sterile  of  '  upright '  and 
stony  farms,  farms  the  very  sight  of  which  would  make 
an  Indiana  farmer  sick  with  nervous  prostration.  He 
has  sent  his  sons  out  to  be  leaders  of  men  in  all  the 
industries  and  activities  in  every  part  of  our  country." 

If  there  were  no  improvement  in  the  mountaineer  who 
remains  on  his  land,  the  South  would  rue  it;  but  in  some 
parts  of  the  mountains  one  may  have  such  experiences  as 
those  of  the  writer  in  1907  on  a  pedestrian  journey  across 
the  mountains  of  North  Carolina,  among  what  has  been 
supposed  to  be  the  most  primitive  and  least  hopeful  peo- 

35 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

pie  in  the  Southern  mountains.  He  found  beside  a  lonely 
creek  near  the  little  village  of  Sugar  Grove  the  house  of 
the  son  of  a  Swiss  immigrant,  the  best  one  for  many  miles. 
It  is  also  the  Telephone  Exchange  in  that  remote  region. 
The  stranger  is  received  hospitably,  and  sits  down  to  a  meal 
of  a  dozen  good  dishes,  including  the  traditional  five  kinds 
of  sauce.  He  is  not  required  to  sleep  in  the  Telephone 
Exchange  itself,  which  is  the  living  room  of  the  family 
occupied  by  the  husband,  wife,  two  babies,  two  older  chil- 
dren squabbling  in  a  trundle  bed,  and  a  space  for  two 
more,  but  receives  a  clean  and  comfortable  room  to  him- 
self. The  host  is  justly  proud  that  Sugar  Grove  has  a  good 
two-story  school  house  put  up  by  the  labor  of  the  people 
of  the  neighborhood,  who  tax  themselves  to  increase  the 
school  term  from  the  four  months  supported  by  the  State 
fund  to  eight  months.  In  that  valley  the  people  are  as 
prosperous  as  in  the  average  Maine  village,  and  for 
much  the  same  reason ;  it  is  lumber  that  has  brought  money 
and  prosperity;  for  railroads  were  not  built  thither  till 
the  lumber  was  worth  so  much  that  the  owners  received 
considerable  sums  in  cash,  and  the  thrifty  ones  have  saved 
it  A  few  nights  later  was  tested  the  hospitality  of  a 
young  couple  newly  married,  who  were  running  a  little 
mill.  They  furnished  a  good  room,  a  capital  supper  of 
eggs,  bacon,  good  coffee,  corn  pone,  and  the  equally  de- 
licious wheat  pone,  and  arose  in  the  dark  so  as  to  favor 
a  five-o'clock  departure ;  and  they  "  allowed  "  that  the  en- 
tertainment was  worth  about  twenty-five  cents. 

What  has  been  done  in  Boone  County,  N.  C.,  is  like- 
ly to  be  done  in  most  of  the  other  mountains  sooner 
or  later;  the  coal  and  the  timber  draw  the  railroad,  estab- 
lish the  village,  make  possible  the  school  and  start  the 
community  upward;  but  the  mountaineers  are  slow  to 

36 


THE    POOR    WHITE 

move,  and  the  boarding  schools,  established  partly  by 
Northerners,  are  a  godsend  to  the  people.  When  in  one 
such  school  mustering  a  hundred  and  fifty  boys  one  hundred 
and  thirty  "guns"  (that  is,  pistols)  are  turned  over  to 
the  principal  upon  request,  it  is  clear  that  the  mountain- 
eers need  a  new  standard  of  personal  relations.  As  you 
ride  through  parts  of  Kentucky,  people  point  out  to  you 
where  Bill  Adams  lay  in  wait  to  kill  Sam  Skinner  last 
fall ;  or  the  house  of  the  man  who  has  killed  two  men  and 
never  got  a  scratch  yet. 

There  is  good  in  these  mountain  people,  there  is  hope, 
there  is  potentiality  of  business  man  and  college  president. 
Take,  for  example,  the  poor  mountain  boy  who,  on  a  trip 
across  the  mountains  with  a  fellow  Kentuckian,  seems  to 
be  reading  something  when  he  thinks  he  is  not  observed, 
and  on  closer  inquiry  reluctantly  admits  that  it  is  a  vol- 
ume of  poetry  which  some  one  had  left  at  the  house. 
"  Hit's  Robert  Burns's  poems ;  I  like  them  because  it  seems 
to  me  they  are  written  for  people  like  us.  Do  you  know 
who  I  like  best  in  those  poems  ?  It  is  that  '  Highland 
Mary/  " 

The  reason  for  hope  in  the  future  of  the  Mountain 
Whites  is  that  they  are  going  through  a  process  which  has 
been  shared  at  one  time  or  another  by  all  the  country  east 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  The  Southern  mountaineers  are 
the  remnant  of  the  many  communities  of  frontiersmen 
who  cleared  the  forests,  fought  the  Indians,  built  the  first 
homes,  and  lived  in  a  primitive  fashion.  Much  of  the 
mountains  is  still  in  the  colonial  condition,  but  railroads, 
schools,  and  cities  are  powerful  civilizing  agents,  and  a 
people  of  so  much  native  vigor  may  be  expected  in  course 
of  no  long  time  to  take  their  place  alongside  their  breth- 
ren of  the  lowlands.  The  more  prosperous  South  is  too 

37 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

little  interested  in  these  people,  and  is  doing  little  direct 
civilizing  work  among  them,  in  many  districts  leaving  that 
task  to  be  performed  by  schools  founded  by  Northerners. 
But  there  are  some  good  state  schools  among  them,  as,  for 
instance,  that  at  Boonesboro',  N.  C. ;  and  numerous  small 
colleges  mostly  founded  before  the  Civil  War. 

The  Mountain  Whites  ought  not  to  be  confused  with 
the  Poor  Whites  of  the  lowlands.  Although  there  are 
many  similarities  of  origin  and  life,  the  main  difference  is 
that  the  mountaineers  have  almost  no  Negroes  among  them 
and  are  therefore  nearly  free  from  the  difficulties  of  the 
race  problem.  In  the  lowlands  as  in  the  mountains,  men 
whose  fathers  had  settled  on  rich  lands,  as  the  country 
developed  were  unable  to  compete  with  their  more  alert 
and  successful  neighbors,  who  were  always  ready  to  outbid 
them  for  land  or  slaves ;  therefore  they  sold  out  and  moved 
back  into  the  poor  lands  in  the  lowlands,  or  into  the  belt 
of  thin  soil  lying  between  the  Piedmont  and  the  low 
country.  Hence  the  contemptuous  names  applied  to  them 
by  the  planting  class — "  Tar  Heels  "  in  North  Carolina ; 
"  Sand  Killers"  in  South  Carolina;  "Crackers"  in  Geor- 
gia ;  "  Clay  Eaters  "  in  Alabama ;  "  Eed  Necks  "  in  Arkan- 
sas ;  "  Hill  Billies  "  in  Mississippi ;  and  "  Mean  Whites," 
"  White  Trash,"  and  "  No  'Count "  everywhere. 

These  so-called  Poor  Whites  are  to  be  found  in  every 
state  in  the  South.  They  are  the  most  numerous  element 
in  the  Southern  population.  They  are  the  people  who  are 
brought  into  the  closest  personal  relations  with  the  Ne- 
groes. A  survey  of  their  conditions  and  prospects  is  there- 
fore essential  for  any  clear  understanding  of  the  race 
question. 

The  present  dominant  position  of  the  Poor  Whites  is 
different  from  that  of  their  predecessors  in  slavery  times. 

38 


THE    POOR   WHITE 

Distant  from  the  highways  of  trade,  having  no  crop  which 
they  could  exchange  for  store  goods,  satisfied  with  primi- 
tive conditions  from  which  almost  none  of  them  emerged, 
the  Poor  Whites  then  simply  vegetated.  With  them  the 
negro  question  was  not  pressing,  for  they  had  little  per- 
sonal relation  with  the  rich  planters,  even  when  they  lived 
in  their  neighborhood;  and  the  free  Negroes  who  were 
crowded  back  like  themselves  on  poor  lands  were  too  few 
and  too  feeble  to  arouse  animosity.  Mountain  people 
have  little  prejudice  against  Negroes :  but  in  the  hills  and 
lowlands,  where  the  two  races  live  side  by  side,  where  the 
free  black  was  little  poorer  than  his  white  neighbor,  the 
slave  on  a  notable  plantation  felt  himself  quite  superior 
to  the  Poor  Whites,  who  in  turn  furnished  most  of  the 
overseer  class,  and  had  their  own  opportunities  of  teaching 
how  much  better  any  white  man  was  than  any  nigger. 

The  isolation  of  these  Poor  Whites  was  one  if  the 
greatest  misfortunes  of  ante-bellum  times:  it  was  not 
wholly  caused  by  slavery,  but  was  aggravated  because  the 
slave  owner  considered  himself  in  a  class  apart  from  the 
man  who  had  nothing  but  a  poor  little  farm.  "Joyce," 
said  a  Northern  officer  to  a  Poor  White  in  Kentucky  forty 
years  ago,  "what  do  you  think  this  war  is  about?"  "I 
reckon  that  you'uns  has  come  down  to  take  the  niggers 
away  from  we'uns."  "  Joyce,  did  you  ever  own  a  nigger  ?  " 
"  No."  "  Any  of  your  family  ever  own  a  nigger  ?  "  "  No, 
sir."  "  Did  you  ever  expect  to  own  a  nigger  ?  "  "I  reckon 
not."  "  Which  did  the  people  that  did  own  niggers  like 
best,  you  or  the  nigger  ?  "  "  Well,  'twas  this  away.  If  a 
planter  came  along  and  met  a  nigger,  he'd  say,  '  Howdy, 
Pomp !  How's  the  old  massa,  and  how's  the  young  massa, 
and  how's  the  old  missus,  and  how's  the  young  missus  ? ' 
But  if  he  met  me  he'd  say, '  Hullo,  Joyce,  is  that  you  ? ' ! 

39 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

But  Joyce  and  his  kind  went  into  the  Confederate 
army  of  which  they  furnished  most  of  the  rank  and  file, 
and  followed  Marse  Robert  uncomplainingly  to  the  bitter 
end ;  and  they  had  a  good  sound,  logical  reason  for  fighting 
what  was  apparently  the  quarrel  of  their  planter  neigh- 
bor. A  white  man  was  always  a  white  man,  and  as  long 
as  slavery  endured,  the  poorest  and  most  ignorant  of  the 
white  race  could  always  feel  that  he  had  something  to  look 
down  upon,  that  he  belonged  to  the  lords  of  the  soil.  In 
the  war  he  was  blindly  and  unconsciously  fighting  for  the 
caste  of  white  men,  and  could  not  be  brought  to  realize 
that  slavery  helped  to  keep  him  where  he  was,  without 
education  for  his  children,  without  opportunities  for  em- 
ployment, without  that  ambition  for  white  paint  and 
green  blinds  which  has  done  so  much  to  raise  the 
Northern  settler.  Though  a  voter,  and  a  possible  candi- 
date for  office,  he  was  accustomed  to  accept  the  candidates 
set  up  by  the  slave-holding  aristocracy.  Stump  speakers 
flattered  him  and  Fourth-of-July  orators  explained  to  him 
the  blessings  of  a  republican  government. 

The  Poor  "White,  in  his  lowest  days,  had  a  right  to  feel 
that  he  was  a  political  person  of  consequence,  for  did  he 
not  furnish  three  presidents  of  the  United  States?  Jack- 
son was  born  a  Poor  White,  and  had  some  of  the  objection- 
able and  most  of  the  attractive  qualities  of  those  people; 
Andrew  Johnson  came  from  the  upper  Valley  of  the  Ten- 
nessee; Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  Poor  White,  the  son  of  a 
shiftless  Kentucky  farmer.  Materially  the  Poor  Whites 
contributed  little  to  the  community,  except  by  clearing 
the  land,  and  they  took  care  that  that  process  should  not 
go  uncomfortably  far. 

Let  a  Southern  writer  describe  his  own  ante-bellum 
neighbors :  "  These  folk  of  unmixed  English  stock  could 

10 


THE    POOR   WHITE 

not  cook ;  but  held  fast  to  a  primitive  and  violent  religion, 
all  believers  expecting  to  go  to  heaven.  What,  therefore, 
did  earthly  poverty  matter  ?  They  were  determined  not  to 
pay  more  taxes.  They  were  suspicious  of  all  proposed 
changes;  and  to  have  a  school  or  a  good  school,  would 
be  a  violent  change.  They  were  '  the  happiest  and  most 
fortunate  people  on  the  face  of  the  globe.'  Why  should 
they  not  be  content  ?  .  .  .  holding  fast  to  the  notion  that  they 
are  a  part  of  a  long-settled  life;  fixed  in  their  ways;  un- 
thinking and  standing  still ;  .  .  .  unaware  of  their  own  dis- 
comfort; ignorant  of  the  world  about  them  and  of  what 
invention,  ingenuity,  industry,  and  prosperity  have  brought 
to  their  fellows,  and  too  proud  or  too  weak  to  care  to  learn 
these  things." 

What  is  the  present  condition  of  the  Poor  White? 
The  greater  number  of  white  rural  families  own  their 
farms,  though  there  is  a  considerable  class  of  renters;  and 
they  till  them  in  the  wasteful  and  haphazard  fashion  of 
the  frontier.  Their  stock  is  poor  and  scanty,  except  that 
they  love  a  good  horse.  Most  of  their  food  except  sugar 
they  raise  on  their  own  places,  and  up  to  a  few  years  ago 
they  were  clad  in  homespun.  There  are  still  areas  such  as 
southern  Arkansas  and  northern  Florida  in  which  the  life 
of  the  Poor  Whites  has  little  changed  in  half  a  century. 

Otherwise,  if  one  now  seeks  to  find  this  primitive  and 
sordid  life  in  the  South,  he  will  need  to  search  a  long 
time.  After  the  Civil  War  the  disbanded  soldiers  went 
back  to  their  cabins,  and  for  a  time  resumed  their  old 
habits,  but  at  present  they  are  undergoing  a  great  and  sig- 
nificant change.  Though  there  are  five  or  six  millions 
of  Poor  Whites  scattered  through  the  South,  especially  in 
the  remote  hill  country,  for  the  most  part  away  from  the 
rich  cotton  lands  and  the  great  plantations,  you  may  liter- 

41 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

ally  travel  a  thousand  miles  through  the  back  country 
without  finding  a  single  county  in  which  they  do  not  show 
a  distinct  uplift.  Take  a  specific  example.  On  January 
2,  1908,  on  a  steamer  making  its  way  up  the  Mississippi 
River,  was  a  family  of  typical  Poor  Whites,  undersized,  ill- 
fed,  unshaven,  anaemic,  unprogressive,  moving  with  their 
household  gods,  the  only  deck  passengers  among  the  Ne- 
groes in  the  engine  room.  On  inquiring  into  the  case,  it 
came  out  that  they  could  no  longer  afford  to  pay  the  rent  on 
the  tenant  farm  which  they  had  occupied  for  several  years. 
"  How  do  you  expect  to  get  started  on  a  new  farm  ? " 
"  Oh,  we've  got  some  stock.  You  see  it  right  over  there 
on  the  deck.  Seven  head  of  cows."  "  That  isn't  your 
wagon,  I  suppose,  that  good  painted  wagon  ?  "  "  Oh,  yes, 
that's  our  wagon,  and  them's  our  horses,  three  of  'em." 
"  Is  that  pile  of  furniture  and  household  goods  yours 
too  ?  "  "  Yes,  that  plunder's  ours ;  we've  got  everything 
with  us.  You  see  I  want  to  take  my  little  boys  where  they 
can  have  some  schooling."  And  this  was  the  lazy,  apa- 
thetic, and  hopeless  Poor  White!  He  had  more  property 
than  the  average  of  small  Southern  farmers,  and  was 
moving  just  as  the  Iowa  man  moves  to  Nebraska,  and  the 
Nebraska  man  to  Idaho,  because  full  of  that  determination 
to  give  his  children  a  better  chance  than  he  had  himself, 
which  is  one  of  the  main  props  of  civilization. 

Wherever  the  abject  Poor  White  may  be,  a  personal 
search  shows  that  he  is  not  in  the  hill  country  of  Louisiana, 
Mississippi,  or  Alabama,  nor  in  the  enormous  piney  woods 
district  of  southern  Alabama  and  Georgia.  Visit  Coosa 
County,  Alabama,  supposed  to  be  as  near  the  head  waters 
of  Bitter  Creek  as  you  can  get,  lay  out  a  route  which  will 
carry  you  through  by-roads,  across  farms,  and  into  coves 
where  even  a  drummer  is  a  novelty.  You  will  find  many 

42 


poor  people  living  in  cabins  which  could  not  be  let  to  a 
city  tenant  if  the  sanitary  inspectors  knew  it,  some  of 
them  in  one-room  houses,  with  a  puncheon  floor,  made  of 
split  logs ;  with  log  walls  chinked  with  clay  and  moss,  with 
a  firestead  of  baked  clay,  and  a  cob  chimney.  Around  that 
fire  all  the  family  cooking  is  carried  on;  the  room  is 
nearly  filled  up  with  bedsteads  and  chests  or  trunks,  a  few 
pictures,  chiefly  crude  advertising  posters,  and  not  enough 
chairs  to  seat  the  family. 

That  is  the  way  perhaps  a  fifth  of  the  hill  Whites  live, 
but  four  fifths  of  them  are  in  better  conditions.  The  one- 
room  cabins  have  given  way  to  larger  houses,  a  favorite, 
though  by  no  means  a  type,  being  the  double  house  with 
the  "  hall  "  or  open  passage  from  back  to  front ;  besides  the 
two  rooms  there  will  probably  be  a  lean-to,  and  perhaps  ad- 
ditional rooms  built  on ;  and  very  likely  a  separate  kitchen, 
used  also  as  a  dining  room.  Instead  of  the  three  to  twelve 
little  out-buildings  scattered  about,  decent  shelters  begin 
to  appear  for  the  stock,  and'  tight  houses  for  tools  and 
utensils. 

Of  the  morals  of  these  people  it  is  difficult  for  a 
stranger  to  judge,  but  the  intimate  family  life  in  the  better 
cabins  is  in  every  way  decorous.  The  pride  of  the  family 
is  the  splendid  patchwork  bed  quilt,  with  magnificent  pat- 
terns, representing  anything  from  the  Field  of  the  Cloth 
of  Gold  to  the  solar  system.  The  children,  who  may  be 
anywhere  from  two  to  fifteen  in  number,  are  civil,  the 
spirit  of  the  family  hospitable ;  and  though  there  are  none 
of  the  books  and  newspapers  which  help  to  furnish  both 
the  sitting  room  and  the  brains  of  the  Northern  farmer's 
family,  they  are  a  hopeful  people.  Some  embarrassing 
questions  arise  when  there  are  nine  people,  old  and  young, 
sleeping  in  the  same  room,  but  even  in  the  one-room 
4  43 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

houses  the  people  commonly  have  ways  of  disposing  of 
themselves  which  are  entirely  decent.  The  poorest  fam- 
ilies live  on  "  hog  and  hominy,"  a  locution  which  does  not 
exclude  the  invariable  salaratus  biscuit,  corn  pone,  and  real 
or  alleged  coffee  and  string  beans. 

It  is  hardly  fair  to  compare  these  people,  who  are  at 
best  only  ten  or  twenty  years  away  from  the  frontier,  with 
New  Englanders  or  Middle  States  or  far  Western  farmers. 
In  the  Southern  climate  people  get  on  with  smaller  houses, 
fewer  fireplaces  and  stoves,  and  more  ventilation  through 
the  walls.  There  is  little  necessity  for  large  farm  build- 
ings, and  the  country  is  too  rough  to  use  much  farm  ma- 
chinery. Their  outside  wants  are  simple — coffee,  sugar, 
or  the  excellent  cane-syrup,  clothing  (inasmuch  as  they 
no  longer  make  their  own),  wagons  and  utensils;  these 
can  all  be  bought  with  their  cotton,  and  they  raise  their 
own  corn  and  "meat"  (pork).  In  comparison  with  the 
North  a  fair  standard  would  be  to  set  a  dozen  of  the 
Coosa  County  houses  alongside  a  mining  village  in  Penn- 
sylvania, and  the  advantage  of  cleanliness,  decency,  and 
thrift  would  show  itself  on  the  Southern  side. 

Those  people  are  rising;  though  still  alarmingly  be- 
hind, both  in  education  and  in  a  sense  of  the  need  of 
education.  Unusually  well-to-do  farmers  may  be  found 
who  boast  that  they  are  illiterate,  and  who  will  not  send 
their  children  steadily  to  good  schools  in  the  neighbor- 
hood; but  they  are  learning  one  of  the  first  lessons  of  up- 
lift, namely,  that  the  preparation  for  later  comfort  is  to 
save  money.  Saving  means  work,  and  perhaps  the  secret 
of  the  undoubted  improvement  of  the  Poor  "Whites  is  that 
there  is  work  that  they  can  do,  plenty  of  it  at  good  wages. 
That  isxa  marvelous  difference  from  slavery  times,  when 
there  was  nothing  going  on  in  their  region  except  farm- 

44 


THE    POOR   WHITE 

ing,  and  it  was  thought  ignoble  to  work  on  anybody  else's 
farm,  for  that  was  what  niggers  did.  Nowadays  some 
Whites  are  tenants  or  laborers  on  large  plantations.  Near 
Monroe,  La.,  for  instance,  is  a  plantation  carried  on  by 
Acadians  brought  up  from  lower  Louisiana,  with  the  hope 
that  they  will  like  it  and  save  money  enough  to  buy  up  the 
land  in  small  parcels.  There  are  plantations  on  which 
white  tenants  come  into  houses  just  vacated  by  negro 
tenants,  on  the  same  terms  as  the  previous  occupants;  the 
women  working  in  the  fields,  precisely  as  the  Negroes  do; 
there  are  plantations  almost  wholly  manned  by  white  ten- 
ants. But  there  are  other  more  attractive  employments, 
and  it  is  so  easy  for  the  white  man  to  buy  land  that  there 
is  no  likelihood  of  the  growth  of  a  class  of  white  agricul- 
tural laborers  in  the  South. 

The  son  of  the  Poor  White  farmer,  or  the  farmer  him- 
self, if  he  finds  it  hard  to  make  things  go,  can  usually 
find  employment  in  his  own  neighborhood,  or  at  no  great 
distance.  Large  forces  of  men  are  employed  in  clearing 
new  land,  a  process  which  is  going  on  in  the  hills,  in  the 
piney  woods,  and  in  the  richest  agricultural  belt.  Little 
sawmills  are  scattered  widely,  and  the  turpentine  indus- 
try gives  employment  to  thousands  of  people.  Day  wages 
have  gone  up  till  a  dollar  a  day  is  easy  to  earn,  and  some- 
times more;  and  the  wages  of  farm  laborers  have  risen 
from  the  old  eight  or  ten  dollars  a  month  to  fifteen  dol- 
lars a  month  and  upward.  The  great  lumber  camps  give 
employment  to  thousands  of  people,  both  white  and  black, 
and  are  on  the  whole  demoralizing,  for  liquor  there  flows 
freely;  and  though  families  are  encouraged  to  come,  the 
life  is  irregular,  and  sawmill  towns  may  suddenly  decay. 

The  great  resource  of  the  Poor  White  is  work  in 
the  cotton  mills,  for  which  he  furnishes  almost  the  only 

45 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

available  supply  of  the  less  highly  skilled  kinds  of  labor. 
Here  the  conditions  are  wholly  different  from  those  of  half 
a  century  ago;  he  can  find  work  every  day  for  every 
healthy  member  of  his  family,  and  sometimes  prefers  add- 
ing up  the  wages  of  the  women  and  children  to  making 
wages  for  himself.  Whatever  the  drawbacks  of  the  mill 
town,  it  has  schools,  the  Sunday  newspaper,  and  some  con- 
tact with  the  outside  world;  and  the  man  who  really 
loves  the  farm  may  always  return  to  it. 

Even  in  slavery  times  the  ambitious  Poor  White  could 
get  out  of  his  environment,  and  furnished  many  of  the 
business  and  political  leaders  of  his  time;  and  there  was 
a  class  of  white  farmers  working  their  own  land.  That 
class  still  exists,  though  no  longer  set  off  so  sharply  from 
the  ordinary  Poor  Whites,  inasmuch  as  the  lower  element 
is  approaching  the  higher.  As  an  instance,  take  a  farm- 
stead in  Coosa  County,  Alabama,  containing  perhaps  a 
hundred  acres,  and  alongside  the  disused  old  house  is  a 
new  and  more  comfortable  one,  flanked  by  a  pump  house; 
grouped  near  it  are  nine  log  outhouses,  and  one  frame 
building  intended  for  cotton  seed.  The  front  yard  is 
beaten  down  flat,  for  it  is  very  hard  to  make  grass  grow 
in  the  South  near  to  houses ;  but  it  is  neat  and  reasonably 
tidy;  in  the  foreground  stands  an  old  syrup  pan  with  red 
stone  chimney,  and  near  by  is  the  rude  horse-mill  used 
for  grinding  the  cane.  Such  a  farm  is  a  fair  type  of 
the  average  place,  but  still  better  conditions  may  be  seen 
in  new  houses  of  four  and  even  six  rooms,  with  the  front 
yard  fenced  in,  and  a  gate,  and  a  big  barn  for  the  storage 
of  hay,  just  such  as  you  might  find  in  southern  Iowa. 

The  evident  uplift  among  the  Poor  Whites  in  their  own 
strongholds  is  only  a  part  of  the  story;  for  ever  since  the 
Revolution  there  has  been  a  drift  of  these  people  into  the 

46 


THE    POOK   WHITE 

more  promising  conditions  of  southern  Ohio,  Indiana, 
Illinois,  and  the  far  West.  If  from  the  number  of  born 
South  Carolinians  now  living  in  other  states  be  subtracted 
the  natives  of  other  states  now  living  in  South  Carolina, 
the  State  will  still  have  contributed  179,000  to  other  com- 
munities. Georgia  has  lost  219,000,  and  there  are  similar 
though  smaller  drifts  out  of  Alabama  and  Mississippi; 
while  Texas  counts  more  than  600,000  people  born  in  other 
states,  principally  the  South.  Former  Poor  Whites  and 
descendants  of  Poor  Whites  can  be  found  in  every  North- 
western and  Pacific  state,  and  constitute  a  valuable  ele- 
ment of  population.  The  truth  is,  as  the  evidence  adduced 
in  this  chapter  proves,  that  the  term  "  Poor  Whites  "  is  a 
misnomer;  that  a  class  of  poor  and  backward  people  which 
has  existed  for  decades  in  many  parts  of  the  South  is  now 
disappearing.  There  are  poor  farmers  in  every  part  of  the 
South;  but  poor  farmers  can  be  found  in  every  north- 
western state.  The  average  of  forehandedness  and  intelli- 
gent use  of  tools  and  machinery  is  less  among  the  back 
country  farmers  in  the  South  than  in  other  parts  of  the 
Union;  but  there  is  such  uplift  and  progress  among  them 
— particularly  since  the  high  price  of  cotton — that  the 
Poor  Whites  are  ceasing  to  be  an  element  of  the  popula- 
tion that  needs  to  be  separately  treated. 


CHAPTER   IV 

IMMIGRATION 

IN  every  other  section  of  the  United  States  the  element 
of  the  population  descended  from  English  colonists  is 
flanked  by,  and  in  some  places  submerged  by,  a  body 
of  European  immigrants;  and  every  state  is  penetrated  by 
great  numbers  of  people  from  other  states.  Considering 
that  the  South  has  contributed  to  other  sections  of  the 
Union  about  two  and  a  half  millions  of  people,  the  return 
current  from  the  North  has  been  comparatively  small. 
"  Why  is  it,"  asks  the  Louisville  Courier  Journal, "  that  so 
few  of  these  home-seekers  come  South  where  the  lands  are 
cheaper  and  better,  where  the  climate  is  more  congenial, 
and  where  it  is  much  easier  to  live  and  become  independent 
from  the  soil  ?  "  Among  the  inhabitants  of  the  Southern 
States  were  enumerated  in  1900  only  400,000  people  born 
in  the  North,  of  whom  250,000  originated  in  the  North- 
eastern states  from  Maine  to  Pennsylvania,  and  150,000 
came  from  the  Middle  Western  group  extending  from 
Ohio  to  Kansas;  but  this  400,000  people  are  so  widely 
scattered  that  outside  of  Texas  and  Florida  there  are  few 
groups  of  Northern  people.  Some  farmers  are  said  to  be 
coming  from  the  Northwestern  states  into  tide-water  Vir- 
ginia; others  to  Baldwin  County,  in  southern  Alabama; 
others  to  northern  Mississippi ;  and  to  Lake  Charles,  Louis- 
iana ;  chiefly  with  a  view  to  the  trucking  industry.  Two 

48 


IMMIGRATION 

or  three  communities  made  up  wholly  of  Northern  peo- 
ple can  be  mentioned,  such  as  Thorsby  in  Alabama  and 
Fitzgerald  in  Georgia,  which  last  is  apparently  the  only 
flourishing  experiment  of  the  kind. 

Of  the  400,000  Northerners  in  the  South  the  greater 
number  are  in  the  cities  and  manufacturing  towns,  as 
business  men,  bosses  and  skilled  laborers  in  the  mills,  in 
professions  and  mechanical  trades.  As  a  rule  they  do  not 
adhere  to  each  other,  and  many  of  them  seem  to  wish  to 
hide  their  origin.  Why  is  it  that  there  is  a  flourishing 
Southern  Club  in  New  York,  and  smaller  ones  in  other 
cities,  yet  no  Northern  club  anywhere  in  the  South  ?  The 
Southern  explanation  is  that  the  Northerner  who  settles 
in  the  South,  within  a  few  weeks  discovers  that  the  con- 
victions of  a  lifetime  on  all  Southern  questions  are  with- 
out foundation ;  and  he  takes  on  the  color  of  the  soil  upon 
which  he  lives.  If  it  be  true  that  the  Southern  man  and 
woman  in  the  North  continues  to  feel  himself  Southern 
to  the  end  of  his  days,  while  the  Northern  man  in  the 
South  tries  to  identify  himself  completely  with  the  com- 
munity in  which  he  means  to  stay  permanently,  perhaps 
there  is  some  explanation  other  than  the  impregnability 
of  the  Southern  position. 

The  Southern  emigrant  to  the  North  finds  no  door 
shut  to  him  because  he  comes  from  elsewhere;  his  origin 
is  interesting  to  the  people  he  meets;  and  unless  very 
violent  in  temper  and  abusive  to  the  section  of  his  adop- 
tion, he  may  criticise  his  home  and  set  forth  the  superi- 
ority of  the  Southland  without  making  enemies.  The 
South,  on  the  contrary,  expects  people  who  are  to  be 
elected  to  clubs  and  become  full  members  of  the  community 
to  agree  with  the  majority;  and  on  the  negro  question 
insists  that  all  Whites  stand  together.  While  courteous  to 

49 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

the  occasional  visitor,  notwithstanding  his  presumed  dif- 
ference of  view,  the  South  is  not  hospitable  to  those  who 
plume  themselves  upon  being  Northern;  and  as  a  commu- 
nity has  shown  decided  hostility  to  the  Northern  teachers 
and  organizers  of  negro  schools,  and  even  of  schools  for 
the  Poor  Whites.  The  Northerner  who  stands  out  on  the 
question  of  the  Negro's  rights  not  only  has  seven  evenings 
of  hot  discussion  upon  his  hands  every  week,  but  finds 
himself  put  into  the  category  of  the  "  nigger  lover,"  which 
includes  not  only  the  white  teachers  of  Negroes,  but  a 
President  of  the  United  States. 

Nevertheless,  there  is  a  strong  Northern  influence  in 
the  South,  exercised  partly  through  Southern  men  who 
have,  either  as  students  or  as  business  men,  become  famil- 
iar with  the  North;  partly  through  the  Northern  drum- 
mers; partly  through  Northern  business  and  professional 
men,  including  many  Northern  teachers  and  college  pro- 
fessors, who  are  scattered  through  the  South,  and  who  in 
general  support  the  principle  of  the  right  of  discussion 
and  the  privilege  of  differing  from  the  majority,  for  which 
the  best  element  in  the  South  contests  with  vigor. 

Small  as  is  the  number  of  Northerners  in  the  South, 
the  number  of  aliens  is  not  much  larger.  In  the  whole 
United  States  there  were  in  1900,  10,500,000  foreign-born, 
of  whom  only  727,000  were  in  the  whole  South;  while  the 
lower  South  from  North  Carolina  to  Texas  contained  303,- 
000,  and  the  five  states  from  South  Carolina  to  Mississippi 
only  45,000.  Of  the  16,000,000  additional  persons  of 
foreign  parentage  in  the  Union  the  South  had  again 
1,500,000.  That  is,  with  a  third  of  the  total  population 
of  the  country,  the  South  contains  about  one  eleventh 
of  the  foreigners  and  children  of  foreigners.  These  gen- 
eral figures  may  be  enforced  by  the  statistics  of  particular 

50 


IMMIGRATION 

cities.  Baltimore  and  Boston  have  each  a  population 
rising  600,000;  but  in  1900  there  were  69,000  foreigners 
in  Baltimore  against  197,000  in  the  Northern  city.  New 
Orleans  and  Milwaukee  are  not  far  apart  in  total  num- 
bers, but  Milwaukee  had  90,000  foreigners  to  30,000  in 
New  Orleans.  Atlanta,  with  a  population  of  near  100,000, 
had  only  about  3,000  foreign-born  people ;  Saint  Paul  with 
a  similar  population  had  47,000. 

This  condition  and  its  causes  go  very  far  back.  When 
immigration  began  on  a  large  scale  about  1820  the  North- 
ern states  were  nearer  to  the  old  world,  had  better  and 
more  direct  communication,  and  populous  cities  were  al- 
ready established;  hence  the  foreign  current  set  that  way. 
No  doubt  the  immigrant  disliked  to  go  to  a  region  where 
labor  with  the  hands  was  thought  to  be  menial,  but  his 
real  objection  to  the  South  was  not  so  much  slavery  as  the 
lack  of  opportunity  for  progressive  white  people.  After 
the  Civil  War  cleared  the  way  and  the  South  began  to 
develop  its  resources  there  was  a  demand  for  just  such 
people  as  the  foreign  immigrants  to  work  in  sawmills 
and  shops;  and  in  addition  they  were  eagerly  coveted  as 
a  source  of  field  labor  to  compete  with  and  perhaps  sup- 
plant the  Negro.  All  the  Northern  states  have  encouraged 
and  some  have  fostered  immigration;  and  the  South  has 
recently  reached  out  in  the  same  direction,  though  with 
caution.  As  Senator  Williams,  of  Mississippi,  puts  it: 
"  Nor,  last,  would  I  neglect  foreigners  of  the  right  types. 
Resort  would  have  to  be  had  to  them  very  largely  because 
of  the  fact  that  our  own  country  could  not  furnish  immi- 
grants in  sufficient  numbers." 

During  the  last  twenty  years  some  systematic  effort 
has  been  made  to  attract  foreigners  to  the  South;  some 
of  the  Southern  railroads,  notably  the  Illinois  Central, 

51 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

have  attempted  to  stimulate  immigration,  in  order  to  fill 
up  the  vacant  lands  and  increase  railroad  business.  Pri- 
vate agencies  are  at  work  in  Northern  cities,  which  try  to 
direct  immigrants  southward.  Immigration  societies  have 
been  formed,  and  a  great  effort  was  made  in  1907  to  induce 
a  current  of  immigration.  A  Southern  State  Immigration 
Commission  was  established  under  the  chairmanship  of 
the  late  Samuel  Spencer,  President  of  the  Southern  Rail- 
road, and  there  are  several  similar  local  societies.  Fol- 
lowing an  example  originally  set  by  some  of  the  North- 
western states  seventy  years  ago,  several  states  appointed 
commissioners  or  bureaus  of  immigration,  particularly 
North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Florida,  and  Louisiana. 
The  most  active  of  all  these  bodies  is  the  State  Immigra- 
tion Bureau  of  Louisiana,  which  has  busily  distributed 
Italians  and  Bulgarians  through  the  State.  The  Federal 
Government  has  taken  a  hand  in  steering  foreigners  south- 
ward, through  a  bureau  in  New  York  which  puts  before 
newly  arrived  immigrants  the  opportunities  of  the  South. 
By  this  bureau  and  by  liberal  and  even  strained  construc- 
tion of  the  statutes  the  Federal  authorities  have  aided  in 
the  effort  to  bring  the  South  to  the  attention  of  the  in- 
comer and  to  facilitate  his  distribution. 

In  1906  South  Carolina  took  a  part  in  the  process  by 
agreeing  practically  to  act  as  the  agent  of  the  planters 
and  mill  owners  of  the  state,  who  raised  a  fund  of  twenty 
thousand  dollars  which,  to  avoid  the  Federal  statute 
against  the  coming  in  of  immigrants  under  contract  to 
find  them  work,  was  turned  over  to  the  State  authorities. 
They  thereupon  made  a  contract  with  the  North  German 
Lloyd  Steamship  Company  to  import  several  immigrants 
whose  passage  was  paid  out  of  the  fund.  In  consequence, 
in  November,  1906,  appeared  in  the  harbor  of  Charleston 

52 


IMMIGRATION 

the  steamer  Wittekind,  having  on  board  450  steerage  pas- 
sengers, an  arrival  which  was  declared  to  be  the  first  suc- 
cessful undertaking  to  promote  foreign  immigration 
from  Europe  to  the  South  Atlantic  section  of  the  United 
States  in  half  a  century.  These  immigrants — 137  Bel- 
gians, 140  Austrians,  and  160  Galicians — were  feted  by 
the  Charleston  people  and  triumphantly  distributed 
throughout  the  State.  Part  of  them  were  not  mill  hands 
at  all ;  others  had  been  misinformed  as  to  the  scale  of  wages 
and  conditions;  one  of  them  thought  it  monstrous  that  he 
should  have  been  a  week  in  South  Carolina  without  ever 
seeing  a  bottle  of  beer.  They  wrote  home  such  accounts  of 
their  unhappiness  that  the  steamship  company  declined 
to  forward  any  more  immigrants,  and  Mr.  Gadsden  was 
sent  by  the  State  as  a  special  commissioner  to  Europe  to 
investigate.  He  reported  in  1907  that  the  people  were 
writing  home  to  say  that  they  did  not  like  their  work  or 
housing.  He  diagnosed  the  trouble  as  follows :  "  Our  ef- 
forts have  been  almost  entirely  expended  in  inducing  im- 
migrants to  come  to  the  South,  and  we  have  thought  lit- 
tle or  nothing  of  how  the  immigrant  is  to  be  treated  after 
he  has  come  in  our  midst;  ...  it  seems  to  me  that  we 
have  entirely  overlooked  our  industrial  conditions,  namely, 
that  the  wage  scale  throughout  the  South  is  based  on  ne- 
gro labor,  which  means  cheap  labor  .  .  .  our  attitude 
throughout  the  South  to  the  white  laborer  will  have  to  be 
materially  altered  before  we  can  expect  to  have  the  immi- 
grant satisfied  to  remain  as  a  laborer  with  us." 

The  only  considerable  groups  of  foreigners  living  to- 
gether in  the  South  are  a  small  German  colony  in  Charles- 
ton and  a  larger  one  in  New  Orleans,  a  body  of  Germans 
in  central  Texas  (a  settlement  dating  back  to  the  Civil 
War),  and  a  few  thousand  Italian  laborers  in  the  lower 

53 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

Mississippi  valley  who  have  been  brought  there  chiefly 
through  private  agencies  in  New  Orleans  and  New  York. 
Some  Slavs  have  been  introduced  into  the  lower  South 
where  they  are  collectively  known  as  "  Bohunks  " ;  and  a 
few  efforts  have  been  made  to  bring  in  the  Chinese. 

For  the  slenderness  of  the  immigrant  movement  there 
are  two  principal  reasons:  the  first  is  that  the  South  does 
not  like  immigrants,  and  the  second  is  that  the  immigrants 
do  not  like  the  South.  One  constantly  encounters  a  sharp 
hostility  to  foreigners  of  every  kind.  The  Georgia  Farmers' 
Union  in  1907  unanimously  voted  against  foreign  immi- 
gration, because  it  would  bring  undesirable  people  who 
would  compete  with  the  Georgians  for  factory  labor  and 
would  raise  so  much  cotton  that  it  would  lower  the  price. 
A  Texan  lawyer  in  a  Pullman  car  painted  for  the  writer 
a  gloomy  picture  of  the  unhappy  condition  of  the  North, 
which  is  obliged  to  accept  "  the  scum  of  the  earth  "  from 
foreign  countries  and  is  thereby  overrun  with  Syrians, 
Eussian  Jews,  and  Sicilians,  who  are  not  capable  of  becom- 
ing American  citizens  and  fill  the  slums  of  the  cities;  the 
South,  in  his  judgment,  was  free  from  such  difficulties. 
The  Manufacturers'  Record  of  Baltimore  is  fearful  of 
"  masses  of  elements  living  largely  unto  themselves,  speak- 
ing foreign  tongues  and  kept  alien  to  the  country  through 
having  no  contact  with  its  people  and  its  institutions  save 
only  through  their  own  leaders.  Such  an  immigration, 
it  is  easily  understood  from  experience  in  other  parts  of 
the  country,  might  become  a  dangerous  fester  upon  the 
body  politic."  A  correspondent  of  the  Richmond  Times 
Despatch  objects  to  immigrants  because  they  will  prevent 
the  reestablishment  of  the  labor  conditions  which  existed 
before  the  war,  and  will  interfere  with  the  plantation  sys- 
tem ;  and  he  especially  deprecates  any  effort  "  to  try  any  of 

54 


IMMIGRATION 

the  races  that  have  become  inoculated  with  union  notions, 
and  who  are  so  quick  to  overestimate  their  contributions 
to  the  success  of  the  enterprises  upon  which  they  work  and 
demand  wages  accordingly." 

Another  argument  is  that  of  competition.  As  a  South- 
ern writer  puts  it :  "  The  temptation  of  cheap  alien  labor 
from  abroad  is  obvious  as  one  of  the  ways  in  which  a 
home  population  may  be  dispossessed.  When  it  ceases  to 
fill  the  rank  and  file  with  its  own  sons  ...  it  ceases  to  be 
master  or  possessor  of  the  country."  From  another  source 
the  Negro  is  warned  that :  "  When  the  European  who  has 
been  used  to  hard  work  begins  to  make  a  bale  and  a  half 
of  cotton  to  where  the  negro  makes  but  half  a  bale,  . .  .  then 
the  farm  labor  will  pass  from  the  hands  of  the  negro 
forever." 

On  this  question  of  immigration,  as  on  many  other 
matters,  there  is  a  divergence  between  the  responsible  and 
the  irresponsible  Whites,  or  rather  between  the  large  prop- 
erty owners  and  people  who  look  to  the  development  of  the 
whole  section,  and  the  small  farmers  and  white  laborers. 
The  criticism  of  the  foreigner  comes  chiefly  from  the  peo- 
ple who  hardly  know  him;  from  the  town  loafer  or  the 
small  plantation  manager  who  "  hates  the  Dago  worse  than 
a  nigger."  Between  such  people  and  the  few  foreigners 
occasional  "  scraps  "  occur,  and  there  have  been  instances 
of  Italians  or  Bohunks  who  have  been  driven  out  by  main 
force  because  their  neighbors  did  not  like  them. 

To  be  sure  the  foreigner  in  the  North  is  not  unac- 
quainted with  brickbats;  but  the  real  question  is  not 
whether  the  Southerner  likes  him,  but  whether  he  likes  the 
South.  He  is  under  no  such  restraint  as,  for  instance,  in 
Buenos  Ayres,  where,  if  he  is  not  satisfied,  he  must  steam 
back  six  thousand  miles  to  Europe ;  trains  leave  every  part 

55 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

of  the  South  every  day  bound  for  the  North.  Hence,  as 
soon  as  the  problem  of  getting  the  immigrant  to  the  South 
is  solved,  the  next  point  is  how  to  keep  him  there.  Of 
the  immigrants  brought  over  by  the  WitteJeind  in  1906, 
at  the  end  of  a  year  the  larger  part  had  left  South  Caro- 
lina. The  authorities  of  the  State  were  guiltless  of  hold- 
ing out  untrue  inducements;  but  the  immigrants  did  not 
expect  to  be  charged  their  rail  fares  from  Charleston  to 
the  place  of  labor ;  they  found  the  wages  less  than  they  had 
supposed;  sometimes  less  than  they  had  received  at  home; 
they  were  obliged  to  deal  with  the  company's  store,  instead 
of  being  paid  in  cash.  Especially  they  complained  that 
farm  hands  were  not  so  "  intimately  received  by  their  em- 
ployers "  as  their  cousins  were  in  the  Northwest.  When  the 
Wittekind  was  ready  to  sail  from  Bremen  two  hundred 
people  who  expected  to  join  her  refused  to  go,  because 
they  had  just  heard  of  the  race  riot  in  Atlanta  and  thought 
the  South  could  not  be  a  pleasant  place.  Rumors  of 
peonage,  and  a  few  actual  cases,  had  also  a  deterring 
effect. 

Nevertheless,  there  are  a  score  or  more  of  little  agri- 
cultural communities  in  which  a  considerable  part  of  the 
people  are  foreigners.  Most  of  these  people  are  Italians, 
that  being  an  immigrating  race  accustomed  to  field  labor 
in  a  warm  climate,  and  traditionally  inured  to  the  peasant 
system.  As  these  people  bring  little  capital,  most  of  them 
are  assembled  on  some  plantation  which  undertakes  on  the 
usual  terms  to  advance  them  necessities  until  their  crop 
can  be  made.  It  costs  in  central  Louisiana  about  $60  per 
head  to  get  Italians,  and  that  is  deducted  out  of  their 
first  year's  earnings.  In  some  cases  the  Italians  come 
out  as  railroad  and  levee  hands  and  afterward  bring  over 
their  families.  At  Alexandria,  La.,  in  the  neighborhood  of 

56 


IMMIGRATION 

Shreveport,  at  Yaldese,  N.  C.,  and  elsewhere,  are  inde- 
pendent Italian  villages. 

The  most  successful  plantation  worked  by  Italian 
labor  is  undoubtedly  Sunny  Side,  founded  by  the  late 
Austin  Corbin  on  very  rich  land  in  southeastern  Arkansas. 
It  dates  back  to  1898;  the  original  plan  was  to  subdivide 
the  estate  and  sell  it  to  the  immigrants;  and  at  one  time 
there  were  perhaps  fifteen  hundred  to  two  thousand  Ital- 
ians there,  many  of  whom  were  not  farmers  and  soon 
grew  tired  of  the  place.  At  one  time  they  were  reduced 
to  less  than  forty  families,  but  people  have  drifted  back 
and  new  ones  have  come  in,  until  in  1908  there  were  over 
one  hundred  and  twenty  families.  They  are  sober,  in- 
dustrious, and  profitable  both  to  themselves  and  to  the 
plantation  owners,  who  have  placed  the  same  kind  of 
labor  on  other  plantations  and  would  gladly  extend  the 
system  if  they  could  get  the  people. 

Some  other  race  elements  are  to  be  found  in  the  South ; 
a  few  Greeks  have  made  their  appearance;  Bulgarians, 
Hungarians,  and  "  Austrians "  (probably  Slavs)  may  be 
found  in  Louisiana;  but  the  greater  number  of  recent  ac- 
cessions are  laborers  or  small  business  men,  who  play  a 
very  small  part  in  the  economic  and  social  development 
of  the  region. 

This  whole  question  of  the  foreigner  is  in  close  re- 
lation to  the  negro  problem.  Even  where  the  "  Dagoes  " 
are  brought  into  close  contact  with  the  Negroes,  they 
neither  make  nor  meddle  with  them ;  but  the  main  reason 
for  interest  in  their  coming  is  the  scarcity  and  the  ineffec- 
tiveness of  negro  labor.  If  the  number  of  foreigners 
should  largely  increase,  there  is  little  doubt  that  they 
would  join  in  the  combination  of  the  white  race  against 
the  Negro.  On  the  other  hand  they  furnish  a  more  regu- 

57 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

lar  field  labor  than  the  planter  is  otherwise  able  to  employ, 
and  when  put  alongside  the  Negro  sometimes  they  sti:ir.i- 
late  him  to  unwonted  effort,  as  witness  the  experience 
of  an  old  cotton  hand  related  to  A.  H.  Stone :  "  I  'lowed 
to  Marthy,  when  I  heered  dem  Dagoes  had  done  bought 
the  jinin'  tract,  dat  I  was  gwine  ter  show  de  white  folks  dat 
here  was  one  nigger  what  wouldn'  lay  down  in  front  er 
no  man  livin',  when  it  come  to  makin'  cotton.  En  I  done 
it,  too,  plumb  till  pickin'  time.  It  blowed  me,  too,  sho's 
you  bawn,  blowed  me  mightily.  But  jis  ez  I  thought  I 
had  um  bested,  what  you  reckon  happened  ?  I'z  a  natchel- 
bawn  cotton  picker,  myself,  and  so  is  Marthy,  and  right 
dar  is  whar  I  'lowed  I  had  um.  But  'tother  night  when 
me  and  de  old  'oman  'uz  drivin'  back  fum  church,  long 
erbout  12  o'clock,  en  er  full  moon,  what  you  reckon  I  seen, 
boss?  Fo'  Gawd  in  Heaven,  dat  Dago  en  his  wife  en  fo' 
chillum  wuz  pickin'  cotton  by  de  moonlight.  I  do'  'no 
how  it  looks  to  you,  but  I  calls  dat  er  underhanded  trick 
myself!" 


CHAPTER   V 

SOUTHERN   LEADERSHIP 

IMMIGRANTS  either  from  the  North  or  from  abroad 
may  be  ignored  as  a  formative  part  of  the  South ;  but 
the  Poor  Whites  are  only  a  part  of  the  rank  and  file. 
There  are  many  independent  farmers,  handicraftsmen, 
skilled  laborers,  and  small  laborers,  all  parts  of  a  great 
democracy;  and  one  of  the  causes  of  uplift  is  the  coming 
of  this  democracy  to  a  consciousness  of  its  own  power. 
Nevertheless,  in  the  South  as  elsewhere  in  the  world,  the 
great  affairs  are  carried  on,  the  great  decisions  are  made, 
by  a  comparatively  small  number  of  persons;  and  in  no 
part  of  the  Union  has  a  select  aristocracy  such  prestige 
and  influence. 

Before  the  war  this  leading  element  was  very  distinctly 
marked  off,  because  it  was  nearly  restricted  to  slavehold- 
ers and  their  connections  by  blood  and  marriage.  Very 
few  people,  except  in  the  mountain  districts,  ever  held 
important  state  or  national  office  who  did  not  come  from 
the  slaveholding  families,  which  never  numbered  more 
than  three  hundred  thousand;  and  half  of  those  families 
owned  less  than  five  Negroes  and  could  hardly  claim  to 
belong  to  the  ruling  class.  The  slaveholding  aristocracy 
included  nearly  all  of  the  professional  and  commercial 
men,  the  ministers,  the  doctors,  the  college  instructors,  es- 
5  59 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

pecially  the  lawyers,  from  whom  the  ranks  of  public  serv- 
ice were  to  a  great  degree  recruited. 

These  people  were  organized  into  a  society  of  a  kind 
unknown  in  the  North  since  colonial  times.  In  any  one 
state  the  well-to-do  people,  perhaps  two  to  five  thousand 
in  all,  knew  each  other,  recognized  each  other  as  belong- 
ing to  a  kind  of  gentry,  intermarried,  furnished  nearly 
all  the  college  and  professional  students,  and  were  the 
dignitaries  of  their  localities.  In  organization,  if  not  in 
opportunities  or  in  the  amenities  of  life,  they  were  very 
like  the  English  county  gentry  of  the  period. 

Those  conditions  are  now  much  changed.  In  the  first 
place,  the  old  ruling  families  have  almost  all  lost  their 
wealth  and  their  interstate  position.  Deference  is  still 
paid  to  them;  a  John  Rutledge  is  always  a  John  Rut- 
ledge  welcomed  anywhere  in  South  Carolina,  and  a  Clai- 
bourne  carries  the  dignity  of  the  family  that  furnished 
the  first  Governor  of  Mississippi ;  but  it  is  a  mournful  fact 
that  hardly  a  large  plantation  in  the  South  is  now  owned 
by  a  descendant  of  the  man  who  owned  it  in  1860.  Some 
of  the  most  ambitious  of  the  scions  of  these  ancient  houses, 
whose  communities  no  longer  give  them  sufficient  oppor- 
tunities, have  found  their  way  to  New  York  and  other 
Northern  cities,  and  are  there  founding  new  families. 
Many  more  are  upbuilders  of  the  Southern  cities ;  some  of 
them  are  again  becoming  landed  proprietors.  Still  the 
element  dominant  in  society,  in  business,  and  in  admin- 
istration, includes  a  large  number  of  people  who  have 
come  up  from  below  or  have  come  in  from  without  since 
the  Civil  War. 

Distinctly  above  the  traditional  Poor  White,  though 
often  confused  with  him  by  outsiders,  is  the  Southern 
white  farmer.  In  ante-bellum  days  there  was  in  every 

60 


SOUTHERN   LEADERSHIP 

Southern  state,  and  particularly  in  the  border  states,  a 
large  body  of  independent  men,  working  their  own  land 
without  slaves,  with  the  assistance  of  their  sons — for  white 
laborers  for  hire  could  not  be  had — and  often  prosperous. 
They  were  on  good  terras  with  the  planters,  had  their  share 
of  the  public  honors,  and  probably  furnished  a  considerable 
part  of  the  Southern  Whig  vote.  Their  descendants  still 
persist,  often  in  debt,  frequently  unprogressive,  but  on  the 
whole  much  resembling  the  farmer  class  in  the  neighboring 
Northern  states.  The  destruction  of  slavery  little  dis- 
turbed the  status  of  these  men,  and  they  are  an  important 
element  in  the  progress  of  the  South. 

The  old  leaders  have  lost  preeminence,  partly  because 
the  South  now  requires  additional  kinds  of  leaders.  In 
the  modern  Southern  cities  may  be  found  classes  of  whole- 
sale jobbers,  attorneys  of  great  corporations,  national  bank 
officers,  manufacturers,  agents  of  life  insurance  and  in- 
vestment companies,  engineers,  and  promoters,  who  were 
hardly  known  in  the  old  South.  In  the  social  world  these 
people  still  have  to  take  their  chance,  for  the  foundation 
stones  of  society  in  every  Southern  state  are  the  descend- 
ants of  the  leaders  of  the  old  regime,  including  many 
people  whose  former  back-country  farm  with  its  half- 
dozen  slaves  has  become  magnified  into  a  tradition  of  an 
old  plantation.  As  a  Southern  writer  says :  "  Legends  had 
already  begun  to  build  themselves,  as  they  will  in  a  com- 
munity that  entrusts  its  history  to  oral  transmission.  For 
instance,  the  fortunes  of  many  of  our  families  before  the 
war  became  enormous,  in  our  talk  and  in  our  beliefs." 

Notwithstanding  this  presumptive  right  of  the  old 
families  to  figure  in  modern  society  many  are  shut  out  by 
poverty  and  some  by  moral  disintegration.  Of  course  in 
the  South  as  elsewhere  the  newcomers  have  more  money 

61 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

and  set  a  difficult  standard  of  social  expense;  but,  meas- 
ured by  New  York  criterions,  there  are  few  wealthy  peo- 
ple in  the  South.  Leaving  out  the  Northern  men  who 
play  at  being  Southern  gentlemen  it  is  doubtful  whether 
there  are  thirty  millionaires  in  the  whole  Lower  South; 
and  it  must  never  be  forgotten  that  nothing  in  the  world 
is  so  democratic  within  its  narrow  bounds  as  Southern 
society.  The  social  leaders  recognize  on  equal  terms  other 
Southern  high-class  people,  and  also  outsiders  whom  they 
reckon  as  high  class.  There  is  a  sharp  difference  between 
the  poor  farmer  and  the  well-to-do  proprietor  or  the  city 
magnate;  but  there  is  not  necessarily  a  social  distinction 
between  the  family  which  has  an  income  of  three  thou- 
sand a  year  and  the  family  which  disposes  of  thirty  thou- 
sand a  year. 

Furthermore,  between  all  the  members  of  the  white 
race  there  is  an  easier  relation  than  in  the  North;  Pull- 
man Car  conductors  are  on  easy  and  respectful  terms  with 
lady  passengers  who  frequently  use  their  line,  the  poorest 
White  addresses  the  richest  planter  or  most  distinguished 
railroad  man  with  an  assured  sense  of  belonging  to  the 
same  class;  society  is  distinctly  more  homogeneous  than  in 
the  North.  It  is  also  more  gracious.  What  is  more  de- 
lightful than  the  high-bred  Southern  man  and  woman, 
courteous,  friendly,  and  interested  in  high  things,  bent 
on  bringing  to  bear  all  the  resources  of  intellectual  train- 
ing, religion,  and  social  life  for  the  welfare  of  the  commu- 
nity? The  high-class  Southerner  believes  in  education; 
he  has  a  high  sense  of  public  duty ;  he  stands  by  his  friends 
like  a  rock;  unfortunate  is  the  Northerner  who  does  not 
count  among  his  choicest  possessions  the  friendship  of 
Southern  men  and  women ! 

In  business  the  South  is  developing  a  body  of  modern 
62 


SOUTHERN    LEADERSHIP 

go-ahead  men  who  are  alive  to  the  needs  of  improvement 
in  business  methods,  who  adopt  the  latest  machinery,  seek 
to  economize  in  processes,  and  have  built  up  a  stable  and 
remarkably  well-knit  commercial  system.  The  South  be- 
fore the  war  had  many  safe  banks,  and  no  state  in  the 
Union  enjoyed  a  better  banking  law  than  Louisiana.  All 
that  capital  was  swept  away  by  the  Civil  War,  and  for 
twenty  years  was  not  replaced,  outside  the  cities;  now 
little  banks  are  springing  up  at  small  railroad  stations,  and 
in  remote  little  county  seats;  and  there  is  a  concert  and 
understanding  between  the  country  and  city  bankers  which 
is  of  great  assistance  to  the  material  growth  of  the  South. 
The  Southern  business  system  calls  for  prudent  and  cour- 
ageous men,  and  there  is  no  lack  of  good  material. 

In  politics,  however,  a  new  type  of  leaders  has  in  the 
last  twenty  years  sprung  up  as  a  result  of  the  genius  of 
Benjamin  R.  Tillman  in  discovering  that  there  are  more 
voters  of  the  lower  class  than  of  the  upper,  and  that  he 
who  can  get  the  lower  class  to  vote  together  may  always  be 
reflected.  As  a  matter  of  fact  Tillman  comes  of  a  re- 
spectable middle-class  family;  but  it  is  his  part  to  show 
himself  the  coarsest  and  most  vituperative  of  Poor  Whites. 
Such  men  as  ex-Governor  Yardaman  of  Mississippi,  and 
Senator  Jeff  Davis  of  Arkansas,  are  also  evidences  that  the 
hold  of  the  old  type  of  political  leader  is  weakened.  Some 
people  say  that  the  present  system  of  primary  nominations 
is  a  sure  way  to  bring  mediocrity  to  the  front. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  leaders  of  society  and  business 
and  politics  and  intellectual  pursuits  fit  together  much 
more  closely  than  in  the  Xorth.  In  part  this  is  the  re- 
pult  of  a  social  system  in  which  people  of  various  types 
imbibe  each  other's  views;  in  greater  part  it  is  due  to  the 
influence  of  slavery,  and  the  half  century  of  contest  over 

03 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

slavery,  in  which  the  great  property  owners  were  also  the 
heads  of  the  state,  the  pillars  of  the  church,  and  the 
formers  of  opinion. 

The  problem  of  the  leader  in  the  South  is  also  the 
problem  of  the  led;  shall  those  who  concentrate  and  shape 
public  opinion,  who  carry  on  the  corporations,  write  the 
newspapers,  teach  the  university  students,  decide  law  cases, 
and  preach  the  sermons,  shall  they  also  set  forth  a  lofty 
spirit?  Will  the  mass,  the  voters,  the  possessors  of  the 
physical  force  of  the  community,  accept  their  decisions? 
In  general,  the  tone  of  the  leaders  in  the  South  is  sane 
and  wholesome;  commercial  influences  are  less  strong  on 
the  press  and  on  state  and  municipal  governments  than 
they  are  in  the  North.  There  is  at  least  a  greater  senti- 
mental and  abstract  respect  for  learning,  a  larger  part  of 
the  community  is  in  touch  with  and  molded  by  the 
churches. 

The  lower  Whites,  though  manifestly  advancing,  are 
still  on  the  average  far  inferior  to  the  similar  class  of 
white  farmers  of  kindred  English  stock  in  the  North; 
and  also  to  many  of  the  foreigners  that  have  come  in  and 
settled  the  West.  Education  is  going  to  help  their  chil- 
dren, but  can  do  little  for  the  grown  people  who  are  now 
the  source  of  political  power  in  the  South;  and  there 
is  a  turbulence  and  uncontrolled  passion,  sometimes  a  fe- 
rocity, among  the  rural  people  which  is  to  be  matched  in 
the  North  only  in  the  slums. 

In  some  ways  the  Northern  visitor  is  struck  by  a  crude- 
ness  of  behavior  among  respectable  Southern  Whites 
such  as  he  is  accustomed  in  the  North  to  experience 
in  a  much  lower  stratum  of  society.  A  large  proportion 
of  the  Poor  Whites  in  the  South  and  many  of  the  better 
class  go  armed  and  justify  it  because  they  expect  to  have 

64 


SOUTHERN    LEADERSHIP 

need  of  a  weapon.  Tobacco  juice  flows  freely  in  hotel  cor- 
ridors, in  railroad  stations,  and  even  in  the  vestibules  of 
ladies'  cars ;  profanity  is  rife,  and  fierce  talk  and  unbridled 
denunciations,  principally  of  black  people.  There  is 
doubtless  just  the  same  thing  in  Northern  places,  if  you 
look  for  it,  but  in  the  South  it  follows  you.  With  all  the 
aristocratic  feeling  classes  are  more  mixed  together,  and 
it  is  a  harder  thing  than  in  the  North  to  sift  your  acquaint- 
ances. Still  there  is  an  upward  movement  in  every 
stratum  of  society ;  as  Murphy  puts  it :  "  The  real  strug- 
gle of  the  South  from  the  date  of  Lee's  surrender — through 
all  the  accidents  of  political  and  industrial  revolution — 
was  simply  a  struggle  toward  the  creation  of  democratic 
conditions.  The  real  thing,  in  the  unfolding  of  the  later 
South,  is  the  arrival  of  the  common  man/'  The  North 
has  always  had  confidence  in  the  average  man;  in  the 
South  the  upper  and  lower  strata  are  in  a  more  hopeful 
way  of  mutual  understanding  than  perhaps  in  the  North. 


CHAPTER  VI 

SOUTHERN   TEMPERAMENT 

THE  South  has  not  only  its  own  division  of  special 
classes,  its  own  methods  of  influence,  it  has  also  its 
own  way  of  looking  at  the  problems  of  the  universe, 
and  especially  that  department  of  the  universe  south  of 
Mason  and  Dixon's  line.  To  discover  the  temperament  of 
the  South  is  difficult,  for  upon  the  face  of  things  the  differ- 
ences of  the  two  sections  are  slight.  Aside  from  little 
peculiarities  of  dialect,  prohably  no  more  startling  than 
Bostonese  English  is  to  the  Southerner  when  he  first  hears 
it,  the  people  whom  one  meets  in  Southern  trains  and 
hotels  appear  very  like  their  Northern  kinsfolk.  The 
Memphis  drummer  in  the  smoker  tells  the  same  stories  that 
you  heard  yesterday  from  his  Chicago  brother;  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Charleston  Club  talk  about  their  ancestors  just 
like  the  habitues  of  the  Rittenhouse  Club  in  Philadel- 
phia; the  President  of  the  University  of  Virginia  asks  for 
money  for  the  same  reasons  as  the  President  of  Western 
Reserve  University;  Northern  and  Southern  men,  meeting 
on  mutual  ground  and  avoiding  the  question  of  the  Negro, 
which  sometimes  does  not  get  into  their  conversation 
for  half  an  hour  together,  find  their  habits  of  thought 
much  the  same:  the  usual  legal  reasoning,  economic 
discussion,  and  religious  controversy  all  appeal  to  the 
same  kind  of  minds.  Northerners  read  Lanier  with  the 

66 


same  understanding  with  which  Southerners  read  Long- 
fellow. 

Nevertheless  there  is  a  subtle  difference  of  tempera- 
ment hard  to  catch  and  harder  to  characterize,  which  may 
perhaps  be  illustrated  by  the  difference  between  the  North- 
ern "Hurrah"  and  the  "Rebel  yell";  between  "Yankee 
Doodle  "  and  "  Dixie,"  each  stirring,  each  lively,  yet  each 
upon  its  separate  key.  Upon  many  questions,  and  par- 
ticularly upon  all  issues  involving  the  relations  of  the 
white  and  negro  races,  the  Southerner  takes  things  dif- 
ferently from  the  Northerner.  He  looks  upon  himself 
from  an  emotional  standpoint.  Thomas  Dixon,  Jr.,  char- 
acterizes his  own  section  as  "The  South,  old-fashioned, 
medieval,  provincial,  worshipping  the  dead,  and  raising 
men  rather  than  making  money,  family-loving,  home- 
building,  tradition-ridden.  The  South,  cruel  and  cunning 
when  fighting  a  treacherous  foe,  with  brief,  volcanic  bursts 
of  wrath  and  vengeance.  The  South,  eloquent,  bombastic, 
romantic,  chivalrous,  lustful,  proud,  kind  and  hospitable. 
The  South,  with  her  beautiful  women  and  brave  men." 

This  self -consciousness  is  doubtless  in  part  a  result  of 
external  conditions,  such  as  the  isolation  of  many  parts 
of  the  South;  but  still  more  is  due  to  an  automatic  sensi- 
tiveness to  all  phases  of  the  race  question.  People  in  the 
South  often  speak  of  their  "  two  peoples  "  and  "  two  civil- 
izations " ;  and  at  every  turn,  in  every  relation,  a  part 
of  every  discussion,  is  the  fact  that  the  population  of  the 
South  is  rigidly  divided  into  two  races  marked  off  from 
each  other  by  an  impassable  line  of  color.  The  North  has 
race  questions,  but  no  race  question:  the  foreign  elements 
taken  together  are  numerous  enough,  and  their  future  is 
uncertain  enough  to  cause  anxiety;  but  they  are  as  likely 
to  act  against  each  other  as  against  the  group  of  people 

67 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

of  English  stock ;  as  likely  to  harmonize  with  native  Anglo- 
Saxon  people  as  to  oppose  them — they  are  not  a  combined 
race  standing  in  a  cohort,  watchful,  suspicious,  and  resent- 
ful. The  North  has  twenty  race  problems;  the  South  has 
but  one,  which  for  that  very  reason  is  twenty  times  as  seri- 
ous. In  every  field  of  Southern  life,  social,  political,  eco- 
nomic, intellectual,  the  presence  of  two  races  divides  and 
weakens.  The  blacks  and  the  Whites  in  the  South  are  the 
two  members  of  a  pair  of  shears,  so  clumsily  put  together 
that  they  gnash  against  each  other  continually.  Though 
one  side  be  silver,  and  the  other  only  bronze,  neither  can 
perform  its  function  without  the  other,  but  there  is  a  ter- 
rible strain  upon  the  rivet  which  holds  them  together. 

This  state  of  tension  is  not  due  wholly  to  the  Negroes, 
nor  removable  by  improving  them,  as  though  the  straight- 
ening only  the  bronze  half  of  the  shears  you  could  make 
them  cut  truly.  If  no  Negroes  had  ever  come  over  from 
Africa,  or  if  they  were  all  to  be  expatriated  to-morrow, 
there  would  still  remain  a  Southern  question  of  great 
import.  One  of  the  mistakes  of  the  Abolition  controversy 
was  to  suppose  that  the  South  was  different  from  the  North 
simply  because  it  had  slaves;  and  that  the  two  sections 
would  be  wholly  alike  if  only  the  white  people  felt  dif- 
ferently toward  the  Negro.  The  Negro  does  not  make  all 
the  trouble,  cause  all  the  concern,  or  attract  all  the  at- 
tention of  thoughtful  men  in  the  South.  In  every  part 
of  that  section,  from  the  most  remote  cove  in  the  Tennes- 
see mountains  to  the  stateliest  quarter  of  New  Orleans, 
there  is  a  Caucasian  question,  or  rather  a  series  of  Cau- 
casian questions,  arising  out  of  the  peculiar  make-up  of 
the  white  community,  though  alongside  it  is  always  the 
shadow  of  the  African. 

Nobody  can  work  out  any  of  the  Caucasian  problems  as 
68 


SOUTHERN    TEMPERAMENT 

though  they  stood  by  themselves ;  what  now  draws  together 
most  closely  the  elements  of  the  white  race  is  a  sense  of 
a  race  issue.  The  white  man  cannot  build  new  school- 
houses  or  improve  his  cotton  seed  or  open  a  coal  mine 
without  remembering  that  there  is  a  negro  race  and  a 
negro  problem.  This  consciousness  of  a  double  existence 
strikes  every  visitor  and  confronts  every  investigator. 
As  Du  Bois  says,  the  stranger  "  realizes  at  last  that  silently, 
resistlessly,  the  world  about  flows  by  him  in  two  great 
streams:  they  ripple  on  in  the  same  sunshine,  they  ap- 
proach and  mingle  their  waters  in  seeming  carelessness, — 
then  they  divide  and  flow  wide  apart."  Henry  W.  Grady 
asserted  that  "  The  race  problem  casts  the  only  shadow 
that  rests  on  the  South/'  Murphy  says,  "The  problems 
of  racial  cleavage,  like  problems  of  labor  and  capital,  or 
the  problems  of  science  and  religion,  yield  to  no  precise 
formulae;  they  are  problems  of  life,  persistent  and  irre- 
ducible." 

Various  as  are  the  opinions  in  the  South  with  regard 
to  the  race  problem  and  the  modes  of  its  solution,  society 
is  infused  with  a  feeling  of  uneasiness  and  responsibility. 
Sometimes  the  visitor  seems  to  catch  a  feeling  of  pervad- 
ing gloom ;  sometimes  he  hears  the  furious  and  cruel  words 
of  those  who  would  end  the  problem  by  putting  the  Negro 
out  of  the  question;  sometimes  he  listens  to  the  hopeful 
voice  of  those  who  expect  a  peaceful  and  a  just  solu- 
tion; but  all  thinking  men  in  the  South  agree  that  their 
section  has  a  special,  a  peculiar,  a  difficult  and  almost 
insoluble  problem  in  which  the  North  has  little  or  no 
share. 

Here  comes  in  the  first  of  many  difficulties  in  dealing 
with  the  Southern  question,  a  diversity  of  voices  such  that 
it  is  hard  to  know  which  speaks  for  the  South,  or  where 

69 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

the  average  sentiment  is  to  be  found.  Public  opinion  on 
some  moral  and  social  questions  is  less  easily  concentrated 
than  in  the  North;  though  the  prohibitionists  have  re- 
cently made  a  very  successful  campaign  through  a  gen- 
eral league,  all  efforts  to  focus  public  opinion  on  the 
negro  question  through  general  societies  and  public  meet- 
ings have  so  far  failed. 

Agitation  'or  even  discussion  of  the  race  problem 
is  not  much  aided  by  the  press,  though  in  some  ways 
journalism  is  on  a  higher  plane  than  in  the  North. 
Most  cities,  even  small  ones,  have  a  newspaper  which 
is  edited  with  real  literary  skill,  and  which  does  not 
seem  to  be  the  servant  of  any  commercial  interest.  There 
is  a  type  of  Southern  paper  of  which  the  Charleston  News 
and  Courier  is  the  best  example,  which  has  for  its  stock- 
in-trade,  ultra  and  Bourbon  sentiments.  No  paper  in 
the  South  is  more  interesting  than  the  News  and  Courier, 
but  it  represents  an  age  that  is  past.  The  conservative, 
readable,  and  on  the  whole,  high-toned  Southern  news- 
papers, do  not  in  general  seem  to  lead  public  sentiment, 
and  the  yellow  journal  has  begun  to  compete  with  them. 
Still  the  paper  which  by  its  lurid  statement  of  facts,  large 
admixture  of  lies,  and  use  of  ferocious  headlines,  was 
one  of  the  chief  agents  in  bringing  about  the  Atlanta 
riots  of  1907  afterwards  went  into  the  hands  of  a  receiver; 
and  journals  of  that  type  have  less  influence  than  in  the 
North. 

A  temperamental  Southern  characteristic  is  an  impa- 
tience of  dissent,  a  characteristic  which  has  recently  been 
summed  up  as  follows  by  a  foreigner  who  has  lived  twelve 
years  in  the  South  and  is  identified  with  it.  "  There  are 
three  phases  of  public  sentiment  that  I  must  regard  as 
weaknesses,  .  .  .  The  public  attitude  of  Southern  temper 

70 


SOUTHERN   TEMPERAMENT 

is  over-sensitive  and  too  easily  resents  criticism  .  .  .  Then, 
I  think  the  Southern  people  are  too  easily  swayed  by  an 
apparent  public  sentiment,  the  broader  and  higher  con- 
science of  the  people  gives  way  too  readily  to  a  tin-pan 
clamor,  the  depth  and  real  force  of  which  they  are  not 
disposed  to  question.  .  .  .  Again,  .  .  .  the  South  as  a  sec- 
tion, does  not  seem  fully  to  appreciate  the  importance  of 
the  inevitables  in  civilization — the  fixed  and  unalterable 
laws  of  progress."  Illustrations  of  this  sensitiveness  to 
criticism  are  abundant.  For  instance,  the  affectionate  girl 
in  the  Southern  school  when  a  Yankee  teacher  gives  her  a 
low  mark,  bursts  into  tears,  and  wants  to  know  why  the 
teacher  does  not  love  her. 

From  slavery  days  down,  there  has  been  a  disposition 
to  look  upon  Northern  writers  and  visitors  with  suspicion. 
Still  inquirers  are  in  all  parts  of  the  South  received  with 
courtesy  by  those  whose  character  and  interest  in  the 
things  that  make  for  the  uplift  of  both  the  white  and  the 
black  race  furnish  the  most  convincing  argument  that 
there  is  an  enlightened  public  sentiment  which  will  work 
out  the  Southern  problem.  In  any  case  there  is  no  public 
objection  to  criticism  of  Southerners  by  other  Southerners ; 
nothing,  for  instance,  could  be  more  explicit  and  mutually 
unfavorable  than  the  opinions  exchanged  between  Hoke 
Smith  and  Clark  Howells  in  1907,  when  rival  candidates 
for  the  governorship  of  Georgia.  In  politics  one  may  say 
what  he  likes,  subject  to  an  occasional  rebuke  from  the 
revolver's  mouth. 

It  is  not  the  same  in  the  discussion  of  the  race  question. 
In  half  a  dozen  instances  in  the  last  few  years,  attempts 
have  been  made  to  drive  out  professors  from  Southern  col- 
leges and  universities,  on  the  ground  that  they  were  not 
sufficiently  Southern.  In  one  such  case,  that  of  Professor 

71 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

Bassett,  at  Trinity  College,  North  Carolina,  who  said  in 
print  that  Booker  Washington  was  the  greatest  man  ex- 
cept Lee,  born  in  the  South  in  a  hundred  years,  it  stood 
by  him  manfully,  and  his  retention  was  felt  to  be  a  tri- 
umph for  free  speech.  Other  boards  of  trustees  have 
rallied  in  like  manner,  and  there  is  a  fine  spirit  of  fear- 
less truth  among  professors  of  colleges,  ministers,  lawyers, 
and  public  men.  It  is  no  small  triumph  for  the  cause 
of  fair  play  that  John  Sharp  Williams,  of  Mississippi, 
in  1907  came  out  in  opposition  to  Governor  Vardaman's 
violent  abuse  of  the  Negro,  on  that  issue  triumphed  over 
him  in  the  canvass  for  the  United  States  Senate;  and 
then  in  a  public  address  committed  himself  to  a  friendly 
and  hopeful  policy  toward  the  Negro. 

In  part,  this  frame  of  mind  is  due  to  a  feeling  neatly 
stated  by  a  Southern  banker:  "The  Southern  people  are 
not  a  bad  kind,  and  a  kind  word  goes  a  long  way  with 
them ;  they  have  odd  peculiarities ;  they  cannot  argue,  and 
as  soon  as  you  differ  with  them,  you  arouse  temper,  not  on 
the  Negro  question  especially,  but  on  any."  This  diagnosis 
is  confirmed  by  "  Nicholas  Worth " :  "  Few  men  cared 
what  opinion  you  held  about  any  subject.  ...  I  could  talk 
in  private  as  I  pleased  with  Colonel  Stover  himself  about 
Jefferson  Davis  or  about  educating  the  negro.  He  was 
tolerant  of  all  private  opinions,  privately  expressed  among 
men  only.  But  the  moment  that  an  objectionable  opinion 
was  publicly  expressed,  or  expressed  to  women  or  to  ne- 
groes, that  was  another  matter.  Then  it  touched  our 
sacred  dead,  our  hearthstones,  etc."  This  state  of  feel- 
ing has  much  affected  politics  in  the  South  and  is  in 
part  responsible  for  the  phenomenon  called  the  Solid 
South,  under  which,  whatever  be  its  causes,  the  South 
is  deprived  of  influence  either  in  nominating  or  sup- 

72 


SOUTHERN   TEMPERAMENT 

plying  candidates  for  national  office,  because  its  vote 
may  be  relied  upon  in  any  case  for  one  party  and  one 
only. 

The  dislike  of  the  critic  is  specially  strong  when  crit- 
icism comes  from  foreigners,  and  aggravated  when  it 
comes  from  Northerners.  A  recent  Southern  speaker  says : 
"  Now,  as  since  the  day  the  first  flagship  was  legalized  in 
its  trade  in  Massachusetts,  .  .  .  the  trouble  in  the  race 
question  is  due  to  the  persistent  assertion  on  the  part  of 
northern  friends  and  philanthropists  that  they  under- 
stand the  problem  and  can  devise  the  means  for  its  so- 
lution." That  Northerners  do  not  all  lay  claim  to  such 
understanding,  or  hold  themselves  responsible  for  race 
troubles,  is  admitted  by  a  Southerner  of  much  greater 
weight,  Edgar  Gardner  Murphy,  who  has  recently  said: 
"  Beneath  the  North's  serious  and  rightful  sense  of  ob- 
ligation the  South  saw  only  an  intolerant  '  interference/ 
Beneath  the  South's  natural  suspicion  and  solicitude  the 
North  saw  only  an  indiscriminating  enmity  to  herself  and 
to  the  negro." 

To  these  characteristics  another  is  added  by  "Nicholas 
Worth,"  in  his  discussion  of  the  "  oratorical  habit  of 
mind  "  of  a  generation  ago — "  Rousing  speech  was  more 
to  be  desired  than  accuracy  of  statement.  An  exaggerated 
manner  and  a  tendency  to  sweeping  generalizations  were 
the  results.  You  can  now  trace  this  quality  in  the  mind 
and  in  the  speech  of  the  great  majority  of  Southern  men, 
especially  men  in  public  life.  We  call  it  the  undue  devel- 
opment of  their  emotional  nature.  It  is  also  the  result 
of  a  lack  of  any  exact  training, — of  a  system  that  was 
medieval."  Another  form  of  this  habit  of  mind  is  the  love 
of  round  numbers,  a  fondness  for  stating  a  thing  in  the 
largest  terms;  thus  the  clever  but  no-wise  distinguished 

73 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

professor  of  Latin  is  "  Probably  the  greatest  classical 
scholar  in  the  United  States,"  the  siege  of  Vicksburg  was 
"  the  most  terrific  contest  in  the  annals  of  warfare  " ;  the 
material  progress  of  the  South  is  "the  most  marvelous 
thing  in  human  history." 

This  difference  of  temperament  between  North  and 
South  is  not  confined  to  members  of  the  white  race.  The 
mental  processes  of  the  Southern  Negro  differ  not  only 
from  those  of  the  Southern  White,  but  to  a  considerable 
degree  from  those  of  the  Northern  Negro ;  and  the  African 
temperament  has,  in  the  course  of  centuries,  in  some  ways 
reacted  upon  the  minds  of  the  associated  white  race.  The 
real  standards  and  aspirations  of  the  Negroes  are  crudely 
defined  and  little  known  outside  themselves,  and  if  they 
were  better  understood  they  would  still  have  scant  influ- 
ence upon  the  white  point  of  view.  The  "  Southern  tem- 
perament," therefore  means  the  temperament  of  the 
Southern  Whites,  of  the  people  who  control  society,  forum, 
and  legislature.  It  is  always  more  important  to  know 
what  people  think  than  what  they  do,  and  every  phase  of 
the  race  question  in  the  South  is  affected  by  the  habits  of 
thought  of  thinking  white  people. 

Both  sections  need  to  understand  each  other;  and  that 
good  result  is  impeded  by  the  belief  of  a  large  number  of 
people  in  the  South  that  the  North  as  a  section  feels  a 
personal  hostility  to  the  South;  that  in  Reconstruction 
it  sought  to  humiliate  the  Southern  Whites,  and  to  despoil 
them  of  their  property;  that  it  planted  schools  in  the 
South  with  the  express  purpose  of  bringing  about  a  social 
equality  hateful  to  the  Whites ;  that  it  arouses  in  the  Negro 
a  frame  of  mind  which  leads  to  the  most  hideous  of  crimes ; 
and  that  Northern  observers  and  critics  of  the  South  are 
little  better  than  spies. 

74 


SOUTHERN   TEMPERAMENT 

The  North  is  doubtless  blamable  for  some  past  ill 
feeling  and  some  ill  judgment,  but  it  cannot  be  charged 
now  with  prejudice  against  the  South.  It  is  not  too  much 
to  say  that  the  North  as  a  section  is  weary  of  the  negro 
question;  that  it  is  disappointed  in  the  progress  of  the 
race  both  in  the  South  and  in  the  North;  that  it  is  over- 
whelmed with  a  variety  of  other  questions,  and  less  in- 
clined than  at  any  time  during  forty  years  to  any  active 
interference  in  Southern  relations.  An  annual  floodtide 
carries  many  Northern  people  into  Florida  and  other 
pleasure  resorts,  where  they  see  the  surface  of  the  negro 
question  and  accept  without  verification  the  conventional 
statements  that  they  hear;  the  same  tide  on  its  ebb  brings 
them  North  with  a  tone  of  discouragement  and  irritation 
toward  the  Negro,  which  much  affects  Northern  public  sen- 
timent. 

This  apathy  or  disappointment  is  unfortunate,  for 
from  many  points  of  view,  the  North  has  both  an  interest 
and  a  responsibility  for  what  goes  on  in  the  South.  First 
of  all,  from  its  considerable  part  in  bringing  about  present 
conditions.  Besides  an  original  share  in  drawing  slavery 
upon  the  colonies,  the  North  by  the  emancipation  of  the 
slaves  disturbed  the  preexisting  balance  of  race  relations, 
such  as  it  was.  Then  in  Reconstruction  the  North  at- 
tempted to  bring  about  a  new  political  system  with  the 
honest  expectation  that  it  would  solve  the  race  question. 
Surely  it  has  a  right  to  examine  the  results  of  its  action, 
with  a  view  either  to  justify  its  attitude,  or  to  accept  cen- 
sure for  it. 

If  either  through  want  of  patience  or  skill  or  by  sheer 

force  of  adverse  circumstance  a  dangerous  condition  has 

come  about  in  the  South  for  which  the  dominant  white 

Southerners  are  not  responsible,  they  are  entitled  to  an 

6  75 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

understanding  of  their  case  and  to  sympathy,  encourage- 
ment and  aid  in  overcoming  their  troubles.  No  thinking 
person  in  the  North  desires  anything  but  the  peaceful  re- 
moval of  the  evils  which  undeniably  weigh  upon  the  South. 
To  that  end  the  North  might  offer  something  out  of  its 
own  experience,  for  it  has  expert  knowledge  of  race 
troubles  and  of  ways  to  solve  them.  The  Indian  question 
ever  since  the  Civil  War  has  been  chiefly  in  the  hands  of 
Northern  men;  and  if  it  has  been  a  botchy  piece  of  work, 
at  least  a  way  out  has  been  found  in  the  present  land-in- 
several  ty  plan;  and  from  the  North  in  considerable  part 
has  proceeded  the  government  of  the  Filipinos.  The 
North  carries  almost  alone  a  mass  of  foreigners  who  con- 
tribute difficulties  which  in  diversity  much  exceed  the 
negro  problem,  and  which  so  far  have  been  so  handled  that 
in  few  places  is  there  a  crisis,  acute  or  threatening.  The 
North  has  further  its  own  experiences  with  Negroes,  be- 
ginning in  Colonial  times;  it  now  harbors  a  million  of 
them;  and  it  has  in  most  places  found  a  peaceful  living 
basis  for  the  two  races,  side  by  side. 

Perhaps  Southern  people  do  not  make  sufficient  allow- 
ance for  the  scientific  love  of  inquiry  of  the  North.  It 
is  a  region  where  Vassar  students  of  sociology  visit  the 
probation  courts;  where  Yale  men  descend  upon  New 
York  and  investigate  Tammany  Hall;  where  race  rela- 
tions are  thought  a  fit  subject  for  intercollegiate  debate 
and  scientific  monographs,  on  the  same  footing  with  the 
distribution  of  immigrants,  or  the  career  of  discharged 
convicts.  In  Massachusetts,  people  are  ready  to  attack 
any  insoluble  problem,  from  the  proper  authority  of  the 
Russian  Douma  to  the  reason  why  cooks  give  notice  with- 
out previous-  notice.  As  a  study  of  human  nature,  as  an 
exercise  in  practical  sociology,  the  Southern  race  prob- 

76 


SOUTHERN-   TEMPERAMENT 

lem  has  for  the  North  much  the  same  fascination  as  the 
preceding  slavery  question. 

Doubtless  the  zeal  for  investigation,  and  the  disposition 
to  give  unasked  advice,  would  both  be  lessened  if  the 
Southern  problem  were  already  solved  or  on  the  road  to 
solution  by  the  people  nearest  to  it.  The  Southern  Whites 
have  had  control  of  every  Southern  state  government 
since  1876  and  some  of  them  longer;  they  are  dominant 
in  legislature,  court  and  plantation;  yet  they  have  not 
yet  succeeded  in  putting  an  end  to  their  own  perplexities. 
Some  of  them  still  defiantly  assert  themselves  against  man- 
kind; thus  Professor  Smith,  of  New  Orleans,  says  apropos 
of  the  controversy  over  race  relations:  "The  attitude  of 
the  South  presents  an  element  of  the  pathetic.  The  great 
world  is  apparently  hopelessly  against  her.  Three-fourths 
of  the  virtue,  culture,  and  intelligence  of  the  United 
States  seems  to  view  her  with  pitying  scorn;  the  old 
mother,  England,  has  no  word  of  sympathy,  but  applauds 
the  conduct  that  her  daughter  reprehends;  the  continent 
of  Europe  looks  on  with  amused  perplexity,  as  unable  even 
to  comprehend  her  position,  so  childish  and  absurd."  Pro- 
fessor Smith's  answer  to  his  own  question  is :  "  The  South 
cares  nothing,  in  themselves,  for  the  personal  friend- 
ships or  appreciations  of  high-placed  dignitaries  and  men 
of  light  and  leading."  He  does  not  speak  for  his  section ; 
for  most  intelligent  Southern  people,  however  extreme 
their  views,  desire  to  be  understood;  they  want  their  po- 
sition to  seem  humane  and  logical  to  their  neigh- 
bors; they  are  sure  that  they  are  the  only  people  who 
can  be  on  the  right  road ;  but  they  do  not  feel  that  they  are 
approaching  a  permanent  adjustment  of  race  relations. 

How  could  such  an  adjustment  be  expected  now?  The 
negro  question  has  existed  ever  since  the  first  landing 

77 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

of  negro  slaves  in  1619,  became  serious  in  some  colonies 
before  1700,  gave  rise  to  many  difficulties  and  complica- 
tions during  the  Revolution,  was  reflected  in  the  Constitu- 
tional Convention  of  1787,  later  proved  to  be  the  rock  of 
offense  upon  which  the  Union  split,  and  has  during  the 
forty  years  since  the  Civil  War  been  the  most  absorbing 
subject  of  discussion  in  the  South.  It  hardly  seems  likely 
that  it  will  be  put  to  rest  in  our  day  and  generation. 

Yet  some  settlement  is  necessary  for  the  peace  and  the 
prosperity  of  both  races ;  and  one  of  the  means  to  that  end 
is  a  frank,  free  and  open  discussion  in  all  parts  of  the 
Union.  Nothing  was  so  prejudicial  to  slavery  as  the  at- 
tempt to  silence  the  Northern  abolitionists;  for  a  social 
system  that  was  too  fragile  to  be  discussed  was  doomed  to 
be  broken.  One  of  the  most  encouraging  things  at  pres- 
ent is  the  willingness  of  the  South  to  discuss  its  problems 
on  its  own  ground,  and  to  admit  that  there  can  be  a  vari- 
ety of  opinions;  and  to  meet  rather  than  to  defy  the  criti- 
cisms of  observers. 

If  the  thinking  people  of  the  South  were  less  willing 
to  share  the  discussion  with  the  North,  it  would  still  be  a 
Northern  concern ;  for  the  Southern  race  problem,  like  the 
labor  unions  of  the  manufacturing  North,  the  distribu- 
tion of  lands  in  the  far  West,  and  the  treatment  of  Mon- 
golians on  the  Pacific  Coast,  is  nobody's  exclusive  property. 
There  must  be  freedom  for  the  men  of  every  section  to  dis- 
cuss every  such  question;  it  is  the  opportunity  for  mutual 
helpfulness.  For  instance,  how  much  might  be  contribu- 
ted to  an  understanding  of  the  decay  of  the  New  England 
hill  towns  by  a  Southern  visitor  who  should  visit  them 
and  then  report  upon  them  from  his  point  of  view.  Vio- 
lent, ignorant,  and  prejudiced  discussion  of  any  section 
of  the  Union  by  any  other  section  is,  of  course,  destructive 

78 


SOUTHERN   TEMPERAMENT 

of  national  harmony;  but  the  days  have  gone  by  when  it 
could  be  thought  unfriendly,  hostile,  or  condemnatory  for 
Northern  men  to  strive  to  make  themselves  familiar  with 
the  race  questions  of  the  South.  "  We  are  everyone  mem- 
bers of  another,"  and  the  whole  body  politic  suffers  from 
the  disease  of  any  member.  The  immigrant  in  the  North 
is  the  concern  of  the  Southerner  for  he  is  to  become  part 
of  America.  The  status  of  the  plantation  hand  in  Ala- 
bama is  likewise  a  Northern  problem;  as  Murphy  has 
recently  said:  "The  Nation,  including  the  South  as  well 
as  the  North,  and  the  West  as  well  as  the  South  and  the 
North,  has  to  do  with  every  issue  in  the  South  that 
touches  any  national  right  of  the  humblest  of  its  citizens. 
Too  long  it  has  been  assumed,  both  at  the  North  and  at 
the  South,  that  the  North  is  the  Nation.  The  North 
is  not  the  Nation.  The  Nation  is  the  life,  the  thought, 
the  conscience,  the  authority,  of  all  the  land." 


CHAPTEE  VII 

ATTITUDE  TOWARD  HISTORY 

THE  history  of  the  United  States  is  a  rope  of  many 
strands,  each  of  which  was  twisted  into  form  before 
they  were  united  into  one  cable.  Each  state  marks 
the  sites  of  its  first  landings,  puts  monuments  on  its  battle- 
fields, commemorates  its  liberty  days,  and  teaches  its  chil- 
dren to  remember  the  great  years  of  the  past.  The  South 
has  a  full  share  of  these  memories,  which  are  both  local 
events  and  foundation  stones  of  the  nation's  history. 
Jamestown,  St.  Mary's,  Charleston,  Fort  Moultrie,  York- 
town,  Mobile,  belong  to  us  all,  as  much  as  Providence, 
Bunker  Hill,  Saratoga,  and  San  Francisco. 

The  Southern  mind  likes  to  think  of  its  episodes  as 
contributions  to  the  national  history,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  claim  as  specifically  Southern  all^  that  has  taken 
place  in  the  South  since  the  foundation  of  the  Federal 
Union.  School  histories  are  written  and  prescribed  by 
legislatures  to  teach  children  a  Southern  point  of  view; 
the  South  of  Washington  and  Jefferson,  of  Jackson  and 
Calhoun,  is  looked  upon  as  something  apart  from  the  na- 
tion. To  some  extent  there  is  reason  for  this  frame  of 
mind;  slavery,  or  rather  the  obstinate  maintenance  of 
slavery  after  it  had  disappeared  in  other  civilized  com- 
munities, put  the  South  in  a  position  of  defiance  of  the 
world  for  near  three  quarters  of  a  century;  hence  the 

80 


ATTITUDE    TOWARD    HISTORY 

history  of  the  South  from  1789  to  1861  can  be  separated 
from  that  of  the  Union  as  a  whole  in  a  manner  impossible 
for  New  England  and  the  West. 

This  separate  history  needs,  like  other  eras  of  human 
history,  to  be  envisaged  in  the  light  of  things  that  actually 
were.  Such  calm  and  unbiased  approach  to  the  study 
of  past  times  is  difficult  in  the  South  because  of  the  ex- 
aggeration of  one  of  the  fine  traits  of  Southern  character, 
of  its  respect  for  the  past,  its  veneration  for  ancestors. 
In  a  world  of  progress  a  main  influence  is  the  conviction 
that  things  need  to  be  improved,  that  the  children  are 
wiser  than  their  fathers;  but  this  spirit  is  out  of  accord 
with  the  Southern  feeling  of  loyalty  to  section,  to  state,  to 
kindred,  and  to  ancestors.  Charles  Francis  Adams  spends 
years  in  showing  up  the  inconsistencies  of  the  character  of 
his  Puritan  forbears;  but  to  the  Southern  mind  there 
would  be  something  shocking  in  a  South  Carolina  or 
Virginia  writer  who  should  set  forth  unfavorable  views 
of  the  courage  of  General  Moultrie  or  the  legal  skill  of 
Patrick  Henry. 

For  this  reason,  or  for  more  occult  reasons,  there  is  a 
disposition  in  the  South  to  hold  to  local  traditional  views 
of  the  history  of  the  United  States  as  a  whole  and  of  the 
South  in  particular.  For  instance,  most  North  Carolinians 
seem  addicted  to  the  belief  that  Mecklenburg  County  drew 
up  certain  drastic  resolutions  of  Independence,  May  20, 
1775;  and  the  man  who  is  not  convinced  of  it  had  better 
live  somewhere  else  than  in  North  Carolina.  In  like 
manner  many  Southerners  suppose  it  to  be  an  established 
fact  that  the  aristocracy  in  the  South  were  descended  from 
English  Cavaliers,  and  the  leaders  in  New  England  from 
the  Puritans.  Yet  there  is  little  evidence  of  permanent 
Cavalier  influence  in  any  Southern  colony.  The  most 

81 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

recent  historian  of  early  Virginia,  Bruce,  says:  "The 
principal  figures  in  the  history  of  Virginia  in  the  seven- 
teenth centuiy  were  men  of  the  stamp  of  Samuel  Mathews, 
George  Menefie,  Robert  Beverley,  Adam  Thoroughgood, 
Ralph  Wormeley,  William  Fitzhugh,  Edmund  Scarbor- 
ough, and  William  Byrd."  Are  these  names  more  heraldic 
than  those  of  John  Winthrop  and  John  Endicott  and 
Thomas  Dudley?  Aside  from  the  titled  governors  who 
did  not  remain  in  the  colonies,  Lord  Fairfax  possessed  the 
only  Virginia  title,  and  he  may  be  balanced  by  Sir  William 
Phipps,  the  Yankee  knight.  George  Washington's  ances- 
tors are  known  to  have  been  respectable  English  squires, 
but  where  are  the  Cavalier  forefathers  of  Patrick  Henry 
and  Thomas  Jefferson,  John  C.  Calhoun  and  Jefferson 
Davis?  The  bone  and  sinew  of  the  Colonial  South,  as  of 
the  North,  was  made  up  of  the  English  middle  class,  yeo- 
men and  shopkeepers ;  and  in  both  sections  the  descendants 
of  those  men  chiefly  came  to  eminence. 

Another  of  the  unfortified  beliefs  which  have  wide 
currency  in  the  South  is  that  under  slavery  the  South 
was  a  prosperous,  happy,  and  glorious  community.  Robert 
Toombs,  of  Georgia,  in  a  lecture  delivered  in  Boston  in 
1856,  said  of  the  slave  states:  "In  surveying  the  whole 
civilized  world,  the  eye  rests  not  on  a  single  spot  where 
all  classes  of  society  are  so  well  content  with  their  social 
s}rstem,  or  have  greater  reason  to  be  so,  than  in  the  slave- 
holding  States  of  this  Union.  .  .  .  They  may  safely  chal- 
lenge the  admiration  of  the  civilized  world."  Later  books 
of  reminiscence  carry  you  back  to  the  delightful  days  when 
"  the  old  black  mahogany  table,  like  a  mirror,  was  cov- 
ered with  Madeira  decanters  standing  in  silver  casters, 
and  at  each  plate  was  a  glass  finger  bowl  with  four  pipe- 
stem  glasses  on  their  sides  just  touching  the  water  " ;  when 

82 


ATTITUDE    TOWARD    HISTORY 

"  woman's  conquests  were  made  by  the  charms  and  graces 
given  them  by  nature  rather  than  by  art  of  women  mo- 
distes and  men  milliners  .  .  .  and  the  men  prided  them- 
selves, above  all  things,  on  being  gentlemen.  This  gave 
tone  to  society." 

This  system  was  assumed  to  be  especially  happy  for 
the  slave ;  witness  a  recent  Southern  writer :  "  Hence,  to 
the  negro,  the  institution  of  slavery,  so  far  from  being 
prejudicial,  was  actually  beneficial  in  its  effects,  in  that, 
as  a  strictly  paternal  form  of  government,  it  furnished  that 
combination  of  wise  control  and  kind  compulsion  which 
is  absolutely  essential  to  his  development  and  well-being." 
Minor,  in  his  recent  "  The  Real  Lincoln,"  urges  that  "  the 
children  of  slaveholders  may  be  saved  from  being  be- 
trayed into  the  error  of  regarding  with  reprobation  the 
conduct  of  their  parents  in  holding  slaves  " ;  and  justifies 
slavery  on  the  ground  that  the  slaves  had  "  a  more  liberal 
supply  of  the  necessaries  of  life  than  was  ever  granted 
to  any  other  laboring  class  in  any  other  place,  or  other 
age."  Reed,  in  his  "  Brothers'  AVar,"  holds  that  "  Any  and 
every  evil  of  southern  slavery  to  the  negro  was  accidental. 
.  .  .  Slavery,  so  far  from  being  wrong  morally,  was  right- 
eousness, justice,  and  mercy  to  the  slave."  No  wonder  that 
"  Nicholas  Worth  "  exclaims :  "  What  I  discovered  was  that 
the  people  did  not  know  their  own  history;  that  they  had 
accepted  certain  oft-repeated  expressions  about  it  as  facts; 
and  that  the  practical  denial  of  free  discussion  of  certain 
subjects  had  deadened  research  and  even  curiosity  to  know 
the  truth." 

This  theory  that  slavery  was  harmful,  if  harmful  at 
all,  only  to  the  white  race,  has  gone  to  the  extent  of  in- 
sisting that  slavery  was  educational ;  thus  Thomas  Nelson 
Page  says  that  at  the  end  of  the  War,  among  the  able- 

83 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

bodied  Negroes  there  was  "  scarcely  an  adult  who  was  not 
a  trained  laborer  or  a  skilled  artisan.  In  the  cotton  sec- 
tion they  knew  how  to  raise  and  prepare  cotton;  in  the 
sugar  belt  they  knew  how  to  grow  and  grind  sugar;  in 
the  tobacco,  corn,  wheat,  and  hay  belts  they  knew  how 
to  raise  and  prepare  for  market  those  crops.  They  were 
the  shepherds,  cattle-men,  horse-trainers  and  raisers.  The 
entire  industrial  work  of  the  South  was  performed  by 
them.  .  .  .  Nearly  all  the  houses  in  the  South  were  built 
by  them.  They  manufactured  most  of  the  articles  that 
were  manufactured  in  the  South."  And  Mrs.  Avary,  in  her 
"  Dixie  After  the  War,"  thinks  that  "  the  typical  Southern 
plantation  was,  in  effect,  a  great  social  settlement  for  the 
uplift  of  Africans."  These  arguments  are  perhaps  not 
intended  to  suggest  that  the  present  free  laboring  popula- 
tion would  be  better  off  if  reduced  to  slavery;  but  they  fix 
upon  the  present  generation  the  unhappy  task  of  justifying 
all  the  mistakes  of  previous  generations. 

The  natural  and  wholly  justifiable  pride  in  the  military 
spirit  of  the  South  during  the  Civil  War  extends  over  to 
the  constitutional,  or  rather  psychical,  question  of  Seces- 
sion. No  issue  in  the  world  is  deader  than  the  question 
whether  states  have  a  right  to  secede,  for  the  simple  rea- 
son that  the  experience  of  forty  years  ago  shows  that  in 
case  any  state  or  group  of  states  hereafter  may  wish  to 
secede,  the  other  states  will  infallibly  combine  to  resist 
by  military  force :  no  state  or  section  can  ever  again  assert 
that  it  has  reason  to  suppose  that  secession  is  a  peaceful 
and  constitutional  remedy,  which  should  be  accepted 
quietly  by  the  sister  states.  To  justify  the  doctrine  of 
secession  now  would  mean  to  pull  out  the  bracing  of  the 
Union,  no  part  of  which  is  more  determined  to  be  a  por- 
tion of  one  great  and  powerful  American  nation  than  the 

84 


ATTITUDE   TOWARD    HISTORY 

Southern  States.  It  can  hardly  be  expected  that  the 
North,  after  sacrificing  five  hundred  thousand  lives  and 
four  billions  of  treasure,  will,  half  a  century  later,  come 
round  to  the  point  of  view  of  the  defeated  section. 

It  is  equally  idle  at  this  period  of  the  world's  history 
to  deny  to  the  Southern  leaders  in  the  Civil  War  sincerity 
and  courage,  or  to  withhold  from  the  nation  the  credit 
of  such  lofty  characters  as  Lee  and  Stonewall  Jackson; 
but  if  they  are  to  become  world  heroes  alongside  of  Crom- 
well and  Iredell,  consistency  demands  that  the  corre- 
sponding Northern  leaders  shall  likewise  be  accepted  as 
sincere  and  courageous,  and  in  addition  as  standing  for 
those  permanent  national  principles  to  which  the  children 
of  their  adversaries  have  now  given  allegiance.  It  is  dis- 
couraging to  discover  such  a  book  as  Charles  L.  C.  Minor's 
"The  Real  Lincoln;  from  the  Testimony  of  his  Contem- 
poraries," which  has  gone  to  a  second  edition  and  the  pur- 
pose of  which  is,  by  quoting  the  harsh  and  cruel  things 
said  of  Lincoln  in  the  North  during  his  lifetime,  to  show 
that  he  was  weak,  bad,  and  demoralized.  Far  more  mod- 
ern the  testimony  of  Grady  in  his  New  York  speech  of 
1886,  when  he  referred  to  him  "  who  stands  as  the  first 
typical  American,  the  first  who  comprehended  within  him- 
self all  the  strength  and  gentleness,  all  the  majesty  and 
grace  of  this  republic — Abraham  Lincoln.  He  was  the  sum 
of  Puritan  and  Cavalier;  for  in  his  ardent  nature  were 
fused  the  virtues  of  both,  and  in  the  depths  of  his  great  soul 
the  faults  of  both  were  lost.  He  was  greater  than  Puritan, 
greater  than  Cavalier,  in  that  he  was  American." 

If  the  South  looks  on  the  Civil  War  through  some  fa- 
vorable haze,  it  is  chiefly  in  the  direction  of  magnifying 
genuinely  great  men,  and  few  of  the  Confederate  soldiers 
retain  any  bitterness  toward  the  other  side.  This  is  not 

85 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

the  case  with  Reconstruction — toward  which,  for  a  variety 
of  reasons,  the  South  feels  the  bitterest  resentment.  Only 
a  few  months  ago  a  flowery  speaker  in  Baltimore,  ad- 
dressing an  audience  composed  chiefly  of  Northern  peo- 
ple, declared  that  "  all  the  ignominy,  shame,  bloodshed, 
moral  debasement  that  followed  the  crowning  infamy  of 
the  Fifteenth  Amendment  must  be  laid  at  the  door  of 
the  North  alone.  .  .  .  The  whole  movement  was  thor- 
oughly revolutionary — anarchy,  chaos,  ruin  was  the  inevi- 
table result."  Thomas  Dixon,  Jr.,  rings  all  the  changes 
and  more  on  this  theme.  He  makes  Thaddeus  Stevens,  in 
the  intervals  that  he  can  spare  from  his  negro  paramour, 
set  out  to  confiscate  the  property  of  all  the  Southern 
Whites ;  and  he  supposes  that  the  North  sends  down  as  its 
agents  in  the  South  "Army  cooks,  teamsters,  fakirs,  and 
broken-down  preachers  who  had  turned  insurance  agents." 
He  charges  that  by  the  North  the  attempt  was  "  deliber- 
ately made  to  blot  out  Anglo-Saxon  society  and  substitute 
African  barbarism." 

The  years  from  1865  to  1871  were  indeed  sorrowful 
for  the  Southern  States,  and  have  planted  seeds  of  hos- 
tility between  North  and  South  and  also  between  the 
races  in  the  South;  but  declamation  and  exaggeration  add 
nothing  to  the  real  hardships  of  the  process.  Many  South- 
erners still  believe  that  their  section  was  impoverished 
only  by  emancipation,  which  they  say  swept  away  two 
thousand  million  dollars'  worth  of  property;  they  overlook 
that  the  South  was  politically  and  economically  ruined  by 
the  losses  of  four  years  of  a  war  which,  besides  the  actual 
destruction  in  the  track  of  armies,  by  its  terrible  drain 
took  all  the  accumulated  capital  of  the  section.  After  the 
war  the  South  still  retained  the  land  and  the  Negroes  to 
work  it.  The  community  as  a  whole  lost  nothing  except 

86 


ATTITUDE   TOWARD   HISTORY 

from  the  dislocation  of  industry.  Inasmuch  as  the  South 
has  recovered  its  productive  capacity,  and  there  is  not  a 
man  of  any  standing  in  the  South  who,  from  the  point 
of  view  of  the  white  man's  interest,  would  go  back  to  slav- 
ery if  he  could,  it  is  time  that  the  charges  of  spoliation 
by  emancipation  were  withdrawn. 

Both  the  duration  and  the  intensity  of  the  Reconstruc- 
tion process  have  been  overestimated.  It  was  a  period 
of  general  disorganization;  the  time  of  the  Credit  Mo- 
bilier  scandals;  the  exact  decade  when  the  people  of  New 
York  City  were  paying  eighty  million  dollars  for  the 
privilege  of  being  plundered  by  Boss  Tweed.  The 
Southern  state  governments  had  previously  been  eco- 
nomically administered,  and  the  people  keenly  felt  the 
degradation  of  corruption  from  which  Northern  States 
were  also  suffering;  but  the  actual  period  of  Reconstruc- 
tion was  much  shorter  than  has  usually  been  supposed. 
After  the  first  attempts  to  reorganize  the  governments  in 
1865,  they  went  back  into  the  hands  of  the  military,  and 
the  consensus  of  testimony  is  that  the  military  govern- 
ment if  harsh  was  honest.  There  they  remained  in  all 
cases  until  1868  and  in  Georgia  until  1871.  Within  little 
more  than  a  year  after  1868  the  Conservatives  of  Virginia 
regained  control;  in  Alabama  Reconstruction  lasted  only 
twenty-eight  months;  in  the  tidal  wave  of  1874  the  car- 
petbag and  scalawag  power  was  broken  in  all  the  Southern 
States  except  South  Carolina  and  Louisiana. 

One  year  or  five  years  of  bad  government  was  too  much, 
but  Southern  lawlessness  was  not  the  monopoly  of  the 
Reconstruction  governments.  One  of  the  greatest  evils 
of  the  period  was  the  Ku  Klux  Klan  which  Reed  says  "  be- 
comes dearer  in  memory  every  year."  There  was  reason 
for  recovering  white  supremacy  in  the  South,  even  though 

87 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

the  conditions  of  the  Reconstruction  government  have  been 
somewhat  exaggerated ;  but  the  Ku  Klux  aroused  a  spirit 
of  disorder,  a  defiance  of  the  vested  rights  of  white  men 
as  well  as  of  Negroes,  which  has  been  a  malign  influence 
for  forty  years.  The  night-riders  in  Kentucky  are  almost 
a  conscious  imitation  of  the  Ku  Klux,  and  only  a  few 
months  ago  it  was  suggested  that  it  be  reorganized  in  Geor- 
gia to  deal  with  negro  crime.  It  is  one  thing  to  read 
of  the  gallant  struggle  of  the  Ku  Klux  to  protect  woman- 
hood and  to  asert  the  nobility  of  the  white  race ;  it  is  quite 
another  to  be  told,  incidentally,  that  in  a  certain  county 
of  Mississippi  the  Ku  Klux  "  put  a  hundred  and  nineteen 
niggers  into  the  river."  That  is  what  some  people  call  a 
massacre. 

The  attitude  of  some  Southerners  toward  the  Civil 
War  and  Reconstruction  suggests  the  story  of  the  Georgia 
captain  who,  after  three  years  of  honest  fighting,  reap- 
peared on  his  farm  and  was  welcomed  home  by  his  faith- 
ful Penelope.  " The  war  is  over,"  said  he ;  "I  have  come 
home  to  stay  forever."  "  Is  that  true,  Jim  ?  Have  you 
licked  the  Yankees  at  last  ?  "  "  Yes,  I  have  licked  them  at 
last,  but  if  they  don't  stay  licked,  I  don't  know  but  I  may 
have  to  go  up  North  and  lick  'em  again." 

Is  the  North  to  be  "  licked  again  "  indefinitely  ?  The 
suffering,  the  sacrifice,  and  the  heroism  of  the  Civil  War 
were  as  great  on  its  side  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  as  on 
the  other  side ;  and  the  historical  perspective  of  that  period 
of  conflict  covers  some  incidents  which  the  North  forgets 
with  difficulty.  For  instance,  the  prison  of  Andersonville 
was  hateful  to  the  whole  North.  After  forty  years  it  is 
easier  than  at  the  time  to  understand  the  difficulties  of 
an  impoverished  government  guarding  thousands  of  pris- 
oners with  a  scanty  force  in  a  region  lacking  in  food. 

88 


ATTITUDE   TOWARD    HISTORY 

Nevertheless,  it  is  a  deep  conviction  of  the  survivors  among 
the  prisoners  and  in  the  minds  of  many  thousand  other 
persons  that  these  inherent  difficulties  were  aggravated 
by  the  incompetency  and  heartlessness  of  Captain  Wirz, 
who  by  accepting  command  assumed  the  responsibility  for 
the  condition  of  things.  By  the  best  showing  of  his  friends 
he  was  an  incompetent  man,  who  had  the  power  of  life 
and  death  over  thousands  of  his  fellow-men,  and  let  many 
of  them  die  for  want  of  humanity  and  common  sense.  The 
only  reason  for  remembering  Wirz  is  that  he  was  obnox- 
ious to  the  Northern  soldiers  in  a  time  of  great  excitement. 
Yet  the  South  of  Lee  and  Jackson  and  Sidney  Johnston 
has  erected  a  monument  to  that  man  who  performed  no 
service  to  the  Confederacy  except  to  be  executed,  who  led 
in  no  heroic  action,  represents  no  chivalry,  and  who  did 
not  so  much  as  capture  a  color  or  an  army  wagon.  It  is 
an  example  of  what  in  other  parts  of  the  world  is  thought 
an  emotional  disinclination  to  look  facts  in  the  face. 

As  to  the  period  since  Reconstruction — that  is,  the  last 
thirty  years — the  acute  sensibility  of  the  South  no  longer 
takes  the  form  of  accusing  the  North  of  an  attempt  to 
submerge  the  white  race,  but  rather  is  turned  toward 
enlarged  news  of  Southern  wealth  and  prestige,  which  will 
be  examined  later  in  this  book.  It  has  been  the  service 
of  Southern  writers,  teachers,  and  public  men  to  look  facts 
more  squarely  in  the  face.  Still,  one  finds  now  and  then 
an  old  man  of  the  old  Benton  spirit.  About  two  years 
ago  a  Mississippi  newspaper  greeted  a  visitor  who  had 
previously  expressed  some  opinions  on  the  South,  as  "  an 
object  of  distaste  to  all  decent  people  of  Mississippi.  .  .  . 
This  blue-abdomened  miscreant  .  .  .  would  have  the  world 
believe  that  the  South  has  burnings,  lynchings,  and  such 
horrors,  with  special  trains,  and  the  children  of  the  pub- 

89 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

lie  schools  to  witness.  Are  the  people  of  Jackson  going 
to  hear  this  traducer  of  them;  this  man  who  prints  broad- 
cast over  the  country  baseless  slanders  against  the  people 
who  misguidedly  invited  him  down  here?  Are  they  going 
to  hear  a  man  filled  witli  venom  who  will  take  their  good 
name."  And  a  high-toned  Southern  gentleman,  up  to  that 
time  a  personal  friend  of  the  Northerner,  thought  it  neces- 
sary to  print  a  card  in  a  newspaper,  setting  forth  the  fact 
that  he  at  least  had  no  responsibility  for  the  presence  of 
the  Yankee. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

NEGRO   CHARACTER 

THE  social  organization  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  in  the 
South,  their  relations  with  each  other,  their  strife 
for  leadership,  takes  little  account  of  the  other  race, 
though  it  is  diffused  throughout  the  country;  it  is  every- 
where with  the  Whites,  but  not  of  them.  Although  to  the 
Southern  mind  the  community  is  made  up  entirely  of  white 
people,  numerically  almost  one  third  of  the  inhabitants 
of  the  former  slaveholding  states  are  Negroes,  and  in  the 
Lower  South  there  are  five  million  blacks  against  seven 
million  Whites.  The  moral  and  material  welfare  of  the 
South  is  intimately  affected  by  their  presence,  and  still 
more  by  their  character.  They  are  as  much  children  of 
the  soil  as  the  Whites;  they  are  everywhere  distributed, 
except  in  the  mountains;  their  labor  is  necessary  for  the 
prosperity  of  the  section;  they  have  a  social  organization 
of  their  own  and  many  of  the  appliances  of  civilization; 
they  own  some  land,  travel,  are  everywhere  in  evidence, 
yet  they  are  distrusted  by  nearly  all  the  Whites,  despised 
by  more  than  half  of  them,  and  hated  by  a  considerable 
and  apparently  increasing  fraction. 

Even  the  names  habitually  used  by  the  Whites  for  their 
neighbors  show  contempt.  "  Nigger/'  though  often  used 
among  the  blacks,  is  felt  by  them  to  be  deprecia- 
tory; "Darky"  is  jocular;  "Negro"  is  condescending; 

91 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

"  Blacks  "  as  a  generic  term  is  incorrect  in  view  of  the 
light  color  of  a  large  fraction  of  the  race.  Afro-American, 
the  invention  of  the  Negroes,  is  pedantic.  The  Negroes 
themselves  much  prefer  "  Colored  person,"  which  is  also 
a  term  used  in  directories. 

Every  Southern  man  and  woman  consciously  or  uncon- 
sciously makes  generalizations  as  to  the  whole  race  from 
those  comparatively  few  individuals  with  whom  he  is  ac- 
quainted. Hence  conventional  and  offhand  statements, 
obviously  based  upon  little  direct  knowledge  of  the  Negro, 
abound  in  private  conversation,  in  public  addresses  and  in 
print.  For  example,  a  few  months  ago  the  mayor  of  Hous- 
ton, himself  the  son  of  a  Massachusetts  man,  who  went 
down  to  Texas  before  the  Civil  War,  was  led  by  an  acci- 
dental question  to  deliver  an  extempore  indictment  of  the 
whole  negro  race  under  twelve  heads  then  and  there  noted 
down  as  follows: 

(1)  The  old  Negroes  in  slavery  times  were  a  good  lot, 
but  Negroes  nowadays  are  worthless. 

(2)  The  Negro  is  the  best  laborer  that  the  South  ever 
had. 

(3)  Education  destroys  the  value  of  the  Negro,  by 
making  him  unwilling  to  work. 

(4)  The  South  makes  great  sacrifices  to  educate  the 
Negroes. 

(5)  The  Negroes  on  the  farms  often  do  well;  but 
those  are  the  old  slaves. 

(6)  The  young  Negroes  will  not  work  on  the  land  but 
drift  off,  probably  to  the  cities. 

(7)  The  pure  Negro  is  much  superior  in  character 
to  the  Mulattoes,  who  are  the  most  vicious  part  of  the  race. 

(8)  The  mulatto  is  physically  weak  and  he  is  rapidly 
dying  out. 

92 


NEGRO  CHARACTER 

(9)  Five  sixths  of  all  the  Negroes  in  this  city  have 
some  white  blood. 

(10)  The  educated  Negroes  fill  the  prisons. 

(11)  Booker  T.  Washington  has  good  ideas. 

(12)  Negroes  must  be  "kept  in  their  place,"  otherwise 
there  will  be  general  rapine  and  destruction. 

Some  curious  errors  of  perspective  are  discernible  in 
this  picture :  the  Negro  is  at  the  same  time  the  best  laborer 
and  the  worst  laborer;  the  South  continues  to  make  great 
sacrifices  to  educate  blacks  who  will  not  work  and  who 
fill  the  prisons ;  the  mulatto  is  at  the  same  time  dying  out 
and  furnishing  five  sixths  of  the  colored  population  of  a 
large  city.  Such  generalizations  are  the  daily  food  of 
the  South.  Judge  Norwood,  of  Georgia,  on  retiring  from 
the  bench  of  the  city  court  of  Savannah,  where  he  had 
tried  twelve  thousand  colored  people,  recently  left  on  rec- 
ord his  formal  opinion  that  the  Negro  never  works  except 
from  necessity  or  compulsion,  has  no  initiative,  is  brutal 
to  his  family,  recognizes  no  government  except  force, 
knows  neither  ambition,  honor  nor  shame,  possesses  no 
morals ;  and  the  judge  protests  against  "  the  insanity  of 
putting  millions  of  semi-savages  under  white  men's  laws 
for  their  government."  The  mayor  of  Winona,  Miss.,  pub- 
licly announces  that  "  The  negro  is  a  lazy,  lying,  lustful 
animal,  which  no  conceivable  amount  of  training  can 
transform  into  a  tolerable  citizen."  Senator  Tillman,  of 
South  Carolina,  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate  has  said :  "  So 
the  poor  African  has  become  a  fiend,  a  wild  beast,  seeking 
whom  he  may  devour,  filling  our  penitentiaries  and  our 
jails."  Governor  Vardaman,  of  Mississippi,  in  his  farewell 
message  to  the  Legislature,  in  January,  1908,  called  the 
Negroes,  who  are  in  a  majority  in  his  state :  "  A  race  in- 
herently unmoral,  ignorant  and  superstitious,  with  a  con- 

93 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

genital  tendency  to  crime,  incapable  unalterably  of  under- 
standing the  meaning  of  free  government,  devoid  of  those 
qualities  of  mind  and  body  necessary  to  self-control,  and 
being  unable  to  control  themselves." 

One  of  the  sources  of  confusion  with  regard  to  the 
Negro  is  that  people  speak  of  "  the  African  Race  "  which 
they  suppose  to  be  pictured  on  the  Egyptian  monument?, 
to  be  briefly  mentioned  by  Herodotus,  and  to  be  in  the 
same  condition  now  in  Africa  as  it  was  when  first  de- 
scribed. As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  are  several  native 
races,  varying  in  color  from  the  intensely  black  and  un- 
couth Guinea  Negro  of  the  West  Coast  to  the  olive-brown 
Arabs  of  the  Sahara  desert,  and  in  civilization  from  the 
primitive  dwarf  tribes  of  Central  Africa  to  the  organized 
kingdoms  of  the  Zulus  and  the  thriving  states  of  the  Cen- 
tral lake  region.  Many  arguments  as  to  the  negro  char- 
acter are  based  upon  the  supposed  profound  barbarism  and 
cannibalism  of  all  Africa.  The  truth  is  that  the  African 
tribes,  with  all  their  ferocity  and  immorality,  had  advanced 
farther  in  the  path  of  civilization  previous  to  their  first 
contact  with  the  Europeans  than  the  North  American 
Indians  of  the  Atlantic  and  Mississippi  regions;  they  had 
gone  farther  in  the  arts,  had  built  up  more  numerous  com- 
munities, and  established  a  more  complex  society.  The 
curse  of  Africa,  from  which  the  Indians  were  not  free, 
was  slavery  and  slave-hunting,  which  from  time  immemo- 
rial have  led  to  ferocious  wars  and  reckless  destruction 
of  life.  On  the  side  of  religion,  the  African  has  built  up 
a  weird  and  emotional  system,  honeycombed  with  witch- 
craft and  a  belief  in  magic,  stained  with  bloodshed  and 
human  sacrifice.  Yet  all  explorers  and  residents  in  Af- 
rica find  many  attractive  traits  in  the  Negro;  he  loves  a 
joke,  makes  a  tolerable  soldier,  often  shows  faithful  affec- 

94 


NEGRO  CHARACTER 

tion  for  his  leaders,  and  under  the  supervision  of  white 
officials,  seems  capable  of  a  peaceful  and  happy  life. 

That  the  character  of  the  Negro  should  need  to  be  a 
matter  of  absorbing  interest  to  the  Southern  Whites  and 
a  study  to  Northern  observers,  is  the  fault  of  the  Six- 
teenth Century  European.  The  Negroes  have  for  ages 
been  in  contact  with  white  races  on  their  northern  and 
eastern  borders ;  Ethiopian  captives  were  brought  to  Rome, 
and  the  black  slave  is  a  favorite  character  in  the  "  Arabian 
Nights."  But  that  this  race,  situated  on  the  other  side 
of  the  globe,  should  affect  the  commerce  and  obstruct  the 
political  development  of  America,  is  one  of  the  oddities 
of  history.  The  Negroes,  who  have  never  made  a  con- 
quest outside  their  own  continent,  who  were  first  brought 
to  Europe  on  the  same  footing  as  ostrich  feathers  and  ele- 
phants, as  objects  of  trade  and  as  curiosities,  have,  through 
the  greed  and  cruelty  of  our  ancestors,  planted  a  colony  of 
ten  million  people  in  our  land ;  and  other  groups,  mounting 
up  to  several  millions,  in  the  West  Indies  and  Brazil. 

Many  attempts  are  made  to  determine  the  ability  of 
the  Negro  by  what  he  has  done  in  Africa  and  in  Latin 
America.  He  has  not  lifted  himself  out  of  barbarism  in 
his  own  continent,  though  he  has  founded  large  and  pros- 
perous states  carried  on  solely  by  Africans;  and  Winston 
Spencer  Churchill,  from  his  recent  visit  to  the  heart  of 
Africa,  sees  reason  to  predict  that  he  will  form  perma- 
nent communities.  The  curses  of  Africa  for  centuries  have 
been  inhuman  superstitions  and  devastating  slave  raids, 
dignified  by  the  name  of  wars,  for  which  the  white  and 
Arab  slave  dealers  are  partly  responsible.  Torture  of 
captives,  sack  of  towns,  murder  of  infants,  coffles  of  slaves 
marching  to  a  market,  are  not  so  far  away  from  the  prac- 
tice of  European  nations  two  or  three  centuries  ago  that 

95 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

we  can  brand  them  as  evidence  of  irreclaimable  barbarism. 
Pappenheim  at  Magdeburg  and  Lannes  at  the  taking  of 
Saragossa  could  match  many  of  the  worst  crimes  of  the 
African  impi  on  a  raid,  or  of  a  white  agent  of  the  Congo 
Free  State  collecting  his  rubber  tax.  Protestant  Germany 
and  England  left  off  the  cruelest  treatment  of  supposed 
witches  only  about  two  centuries  ago.  Cannibalism  and 
the  slave  trade  seem  now  on  their  last  legs  in  Africa,  and 
those  white  men  who  have  lived  longest  in  the  heart  of 
Africa  seem  to  have  the  largest  hope  that  the  Dark  Con- 
tinent may  be  enlightened  and  a  confidence  in  an  African 
capacity  for  an  existence  much  above  the  savage  traditions. 
These  hopes  are  based  in  most  cases  on  the  expectation 
that  white  people  will  furnish  the  government  and  direct 
the  industries.  Whatever  Africa  may  do  for  itself,  the 
one  notable  effort  to  create  an  African  state  on  an  An- 
glo-Saxon model  has  been  a  failure.  The  Republic  of 
Liberia  was  founded  nearly  a  century  ago,  as  a  means  of 
regenerating  Africa  by  Christian  civilization  diffused  from 
this  spot  on  the  coast  into  the  interior;  it  was  to  be  an 
outport  for  tropical  products  and  to  furnish  Africa  an 
example  of  democratic  state  building.  Liberia  is  the  Af- 
rican state  in  which  the  United  States  is  especially  in- 
terested, for  it  was  planted  by  American  missionaries  and 
agents  of  the  Colonization  Society;  and  has  been  an  off- 
shoot and  almost  a  colony  of  this  country.  From  the  first 
it  has  been  cursed  by  malaria,  by  the  inroads  and  pres- 
sure of  savages,  and  by  a  situation  off  the  world's  highways 
of  commerce.  To  be  sure  its  15,000  civilized  people  have 
a  public  revenue  of  about  $300,000,  with  a  total  import 
and  export  trade  of  about  $1,000,000;  but  all  efforts  to 
induce  a  considerable  number  of  Xegioes  from  America 
to  try  their  fortunes  in  Liberia  have  been  failures.  A  col- 

96 


NEGRO  CHARACTER 

ored  magazine  in  Boston  has  had  the  humor  and  good- 
temper  lately  to  reprint  the  following  squib  upon  the 
opportunities  in  that  country  for  the  American  Negro: 

Liberia's  bridges,  mills,  and  dams, 
Need  many  thousand  Afro-Ams. 

Liberia's  ewes,  Liberia's  lambs, 
Like  black  sheep,  baa  for  Afro-Am^ 

Liberia's  road,  Liberia's  trams, 
For  steady  jobs  want  Afro-Ams. 

The  barber  shops,  like  Uncle  Sam's, 
Give  hope  to  myriad  Afro-Ams. 

There's  bacon,  hominy,  yes,  hams, 
For  all  industrious  Afro-Ams. 

With  faintest  praise  Liberia  damns 
The  slow-arriving  Afro-Ams. 

Unless  their  woes  at  home  are  shams, 
Why  don't  they  go,  the  Afro-Ams? 

The  inquiry  of  the  final  stanza  is  to  the  point,  for 
though  the  American  Colonization  Society  is  still  in  exist- 
ence, and  within  a  few  years  has  tried  to  send  out  a  ship- 
load of  Negroes,  Liberia  attracts  almost  nobody  and  is  a 
failure,  either  as  a  tropical  home  for  the  American  Negro 
or  as  a  center  of  Christianity  and  civilization  for  Africa. 

How  is  it  with  the  colonies  and  independent  states  of 
Americanized  Africans  in  the  West  Indies,  where  there 
have  been  blacks  for  as  much  as  four  centuries?  Of  these 

97 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

communities  Cuba,  Porto  Rico,  Jamaica,  Trinidad,  the 
Windward  and  Leeward  Islands  were,  or  have  been  until 
recently,  European  colonies.  Cuba's  population  is  about 
half  Negro;  and  they  come  nearer  social  and  political 
equality  with  the  Whites  than  anywhere  else  in  the  world ; 
but  there  the  dominant  element  is  the  pure  Spanish  or 
Spanish  mestizo.  In  Jamaica  since  the  emancipation  of 
1833  the  races  have  had  but  one  conflict,  that  of  1866, 
which  was  at  the  time  thought  to  be  due  to  the  cruelty  and 
panic  of  Governor  Eyre.  The  blacks  of  Jamaica,  to  a  large 
extent  small  proprietors,  support  themselves  in  the  easy 
fashion  of  the  tropics;  but  the  15,000  Whites  who  live 
among  the  750,000  blacks  seem  less  able  than  the  like  class 
in  the  Southern  states  to  organize  negro  labor  and  make 
it  profitable.  The  Negroes  are  taught  to  read  and  write, 
they  have  furnished  thousands  of  acceptable  laborers  for 
the  Panama  Canal,  and  their  death-rate  is  nearly  down 
to  the  normal  figures  of  the  white  people  for  their  lati- 
tude. Their  illiteracy,  however,  is  about  that  of  their 
brethren  in  the  United  States  and  nearly  two  thirds  of  all 
the  children  are  illegitimate.  Their  government  is  prac- 
tically still,  as  for  two  centuries  and  a  half,  out  of  their 
hands  and  in  control  of  the  English. 

The  Negroes  in  Hayti  are  popularly  supposed  to  have 
deteriorated  intellectually  and  morally.  To  be  sure  the 
alternating  series  of  despotism  and  anarchy  in  that  un- 
happy country  are  not  very  different  from  the  course  of 
things  in  the  white  community  of  Venezuela ;  and  it  would 
be  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  the  Haytian  Negroes 
when  they  became  independent  a  century  ago  had  absorbed 
the  civilization  of  their  Spanish  and  French  masters ;  most 
of  them  were  still  a  fierce  and  intractable  folk  recently 
brought  from  Africa.  Their  experience,  however,  and 

98 


NEGRO  CHARACTER 

that  of  their  neighbors  in  Santo  Domingo,  throws  light 
upon  the  capacity  of  the  African  to  build  up  a  state,  for 
both  these  lands  are  wholly  governed  by  people  of  the 
African  race.  Neither  has  gained  stability  or  improved 
in  education  or  morals  in  half  a  century,  though  the 
Haytians  are  trying  to  set  forth  one  of  the  arts  of  civ- 
ilization by  borrowing  more  money  than  they  are  willing 
to  pay.  The  moral,  or  rather  unmoral,  conditions  of  this 
and  other  West  Indian  islands  are  a  fair  basis  for  argu- 
ment as  to  the  average  character  of  the  race. 

The  experience  of  the  race  in  the  Northern  states 
leads  rather  to  negative  than  to  positive  conclusions  as  to 
their  intellectual  and  moral  power.  Time  was  when  there 
were  slaves  on  Beacon  Hill;  when  Venus,  "servant  to 
Madam  Wadsworth,"  was  admitted  to  the  First  Church 
of  Cambridge ;  and  the  Faculty  of  Harvard  College  warned 
the  students  not  to  consort  with  Titus,  "  servant  of  the 
late  President  Wadsworth."  The  colonial  Negroes,  who 
in  no  Northern  colony  were  more  numerous  than  six  or 
seven  per  cent  of  the  population,  have  left  an  offspring 
to  which,  since  the  Civil  War,  has  been  added  a  consider- 
able immigration  from  the  South.  In  1900,  356,000 
Africans  born  in  the  South  were  living  in  the  North,  and 
that  proportion  has  since  steadily  increased.  Nobody  can 
pretend  that  this  movement  has  improved  the  conditions 
of  the  Northern  states,  and  the  Negroes  themselves  en- 
counter many  hardships;  they  can  vote,  they  get  some 
small  offices,  and  would  get  more  if  they  could  settle  fac- 
tional quarrels  and  unite  behind  single  candidates;  they 
have  full  and  equal  rights  before  the  courts ;  they  are  com- 
monly admitted  to  the  public  schools.  On  the  other  hand, 
separate  negro  schools  have  been  provided  in  Indianapo- 
lis, in  some  places  in  New  Jersey,  and  are  likely  to  spread 

99 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

farther.  Partly  because  many  trades  unions  will  not  re- 
ceive them,  partly  because  they  are  thought  to  be  less 
effective  than  Whites,  partly  from  sheer  race  prejudice, 
they  find  many  avenues  of  employment  closed  to  them. 
Few  people  like  them  as  neighbors,  and  though  admitted 
to  most  Northern  high  schools  and  colleges  they  do  not 
find  that  free  intercourse  of  mind  with  mind  which  is  not 
only  one  of  the  joys  of  living,  but  is  a  great  upbuilder  of 
character. 

The  situation  of  the  Negroes  in  the  North  is  frankly 
discouraging,  both  from  their  own  point  of  view  and  that 
of  the  Northern  White.  Here  if  anywhere  the  race  ought 
to  show  those  qualities  of  determination  and  thrift  and 
uprightness  which  its  friends  desire  for  it.  Many  of  the 
Northern  Negroes  live  on  the  same  plane  as  the  white 
people ;  many  others  do  well,  considering  their  lesser  oppor- 
tunities; and  as  a  whole  they  earn  their  living;  for  where 
the  men  are  lazy  the  women  take  care  of  them.  But  they 
are  the  objects  of  a  steady  prejudice;  the  reason  for  the 
school  separation  is  that  parents  do  not  wish  their  children 
to  be  on  such  terms  of  acquaintance  that  they  can  learn 
all  that  the  negro  children  know.  Throughout  the  North 
there  is  a  distrust  of  the  negro  voter,  a  belief  that  the 
Negroes  furnish  more  than  their  share  of  the  criminals. 

To  a  large  degree  this  is  simply  saying  that  the  lowest 
part  of  the  population  is  thought  to  be  low ;  people  dislike 
Negroes  for  the  same  reason  that  they  object  to  many 
other  persons,  whether  foreign  or  American  born ;  the  woe- 
ful difference  is  that  any  incompetent  white  individual  may 
pull  himself  or  push  his  children  out  of  the  slums  and 
into  association  with  the  best,  while  color  sets  the  Negro 
apart,  no  matter  what  his  success  in  life;  and  the  most 
respectable  of  them  is  treated  as  though  responsible  for 

100 


the  worst  of  his  race.  The  door  of  opportunity  is  open 
in  the  North,  but  it  does  not  open  wide;  the  Northern 
colored  man  enters  into  what  our  ancestors  called  the 
half-way  covenant;  he,  like  his  Southern  brother,  walks 
within  the  veil.  Or  is  the  bottom  difficulty  described  by 
the  immigrant  from  South  Carolina  to  the  North  who 
said,  "  Yes,  dere  mought  be  more  chances  in  New  York 
than  dere  is  in  Charleston,  but,  please  Gawd,  'pears  like 
you  ain't  so  likely  to  take  dem  chances." 

The  fundamental  reason  why  race  relations  in  the 
South  are  regulated  by  the  white  people,  and  are  circum- 
scribed by  what  they  think  best  for  themselves,  is  the 
universal  white  belief  that  the  African  is  of  an  inferior 
race,  so  inferior  that  he  cannot  be  trusted  to  take  a  part 
in  the  political  life  of  the  community,  or  even  to  manage 
his  own  affairs.  That  opinion  is  temperately  stated  by 
Thomas  Nelson  Page  as  follows:  "After  long,  elaborate, 
and  ample  trial  the  Negro  race  has  failed  to  discover  the 
qualities  which  have  inhered  in  every  race  of  which  history 
gives  the  record,  which  has  advanced  civilization,  or  has 
shown  capacity  to  be  itself  greatly  advanced."  It  is  bru- 
tally stated  by  Governor  Vardaman :  "  God  Almighty 
created  the  Negro  for  a  menial — he  is  essentially  a  servant. 
.  .  .  When  left  to  himself,  he  has  universally  gone  back 
to  the  barbarism  of  his  native  jungles.  While  a  few  mixed 
breeds  and  freaks  of  the  race  may  possess  qualities  which 
justify  them  to  aspire  above  that  station,  the  fact  remains 
that  the  race  is  fit  for  that  and  nothing  more." 

The  supposed  inferiority  of  the  negro  race  is  not  a 
foregone  conclusion.  First  it  rests  on  the  tacit  assumption 
that  there  is  a  "  negro  race  "  which  can  be  distinguished 
from  the  white  race,  not  only  by  color  but  also  by  apti- 
tudes, moral  standards  and  habits  of  mind.  Some  experts 

101 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

in  the  South,  who  have  studied  the  race  as  scientific  meiv 
study  the  Indians  of  the  Amazon,  declare  that  they  are 
unable  to  find  any  large  body  of  traits  which  all  Negroes 
possess;  that  they  observe  in  no  colored  person  character- 
istics which  cannot  be  found  in  some  Whites;  and  that 
they  possess  every  variety  of  intellectual  power  and  moral 
capacity.  Then  there  is  the  question  of  the  mulatto,  who 
in  his  race  mixture  may  be  more  white  man  than  Negro. 
Is  he  to  be  included  in  the  general  indictment  of  inferior- 
ity? And,  finally,  what  is  to  be  argued  from  th6  men  of 
power  whom  the  negro  race  has  displayed — a  few  in 
slavery  days,  and  many  in  these  later  times? 

The  most  extravagant  statement  of  negro  inferiority 
is  that  the  worst  white  man  is  better  than  the  best  Negro 
because  of  the  supernal  quality  of  the  white  race.  A 
Southern  writer  talks  of  "  The  endless  creations  of  art 
and  science  and  religion  and  law  and  literature  and  every 
other  form  of  activity,  the  full-voiced  choir  of  all  the 
Muses,  the  majestic  morality,  the  hundred-handed  philos- 
ophy, the  manifold  wisdom  of  civilization — all  of  this  in- 
finite cloud  of  witnesses  gather  swarming  upon  us  from  the 
whole  firmament  of  the  past  and  proclaim  with  pentacos- 
tal  tongue  the  glory  and  supremacy  of  Caucasian  man." 
Judged  by  their  achievements  from  the  dawn  of  history 
to  the  present  moment,  the  white  race  has  indubitably 
achieved  immensely  more  than  the  black  race,  but  it  has 
also  achieved  more  than  its  own  ancestors  whom  Taine  thus 
characterizes :  "  Huge  white  bodies,  .  .  .  with  fierce,  blue 
eyes,  .  .  .  ravenous  stomachs,  ...  of  a  cold  tempera- 
ment, slow  to  love,  home  stayers,  prone  to  brutal  drunken- 
ness: .  .  .  Pirates  at  first:  .  .  .  seafaring,  war,  and  pil- 
lage was  their  whole  idea  of  a  freeman's  work.  ...  Of 
all  barbarians  .  .  .  the  most  cruelly  ferocious." 

103 


NEGRO  CHARACTER 

After  all,  a  race  cannot  be  proved  inferior  by  what  it 
has  not  done;  the  United  States  as  a  war-making  power 
has  so  far  been  inferior  to  the  Germans  and  the  Japanese, 
but  its  strength  has  not  been  tested.  The  real  question  is, 
does  the  Negro  now,  in  the  things  that  he  is  actually 
doing,  show  as  much  power  as  low  and  ignorant  white  peo- 
ple who  have  had  no  more  than  his  opportunity?  The 
Reconstruction  governments,  which  are  the  stock  in  trade 
of  those  who  decry  the  Negro,  are  little  to  the  point,  be- 
cause they  were  to  a  considerable  degree  engineered  by 
Whites,  and  because  they  lasted  only  from  one  to  eight 
years.  On  the  other  hand,  the  great  powers  of  a  few 
select  members  of  the  race,  and  the  excellent  mentality 
and  character  of  many  others,  are  not  proof  that  its  aver- 
age stamina  is  up  to  that  of  the  white  man;  they  must  be 
tested  by  what  they  do. 

The  African  in  America  has  had  little  opportunity  to 
work  out  a  civilization  of  his  own,  and  it  certainly  cannot 
be  charged  against  him  as  a  fault  that  he  has  accepted 
the  white  civilization  which  was  at  first  forced  upon  him. 
As  one  of  their  own  number  says :  "  The  Negro  has  ad- 
vanced in  exactly  the  same  fashion  as  the  white  race  has 
advanced,  by  taking  advantage  of  all  that  has  gone  before. 
Other  men  have  labored  and  we  have  entered  into  their 
labors."  Yet,  having  accepted  a  heritage  of  literature, 
law  and  religion,  from  his  white  brother,  the  Negro  can- 
not escape  from  the  standard  of  the  white  man  among 
whom  he  lives  who  have  had  like  opportunities;  and  if 
he  does  not  measure  up  to  it  it  is  impossible  to  avoid  the 
conclusion  that  the  race  is  inferior.  Either  the  Negro 
is  a  white  man  with  a  black  skin,  who  after  a  reasonable 
term  of  probation  must  now  take  the  responsibilities  of 
equal  character  (though  not  as  yet  of  equal  performance), 

103 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

or  else  it  must  be  admitted  that,  though  a  man,  he  is  a 
somewhat  different  kind  of  man  from  the  White. 

A  favorite  Southern  phrase  is :  "  The  Negro  is  a  child," 
and  many  considerable  people  accord  him  a  child's  privi- 
leges. The  ignorant  black  certainly  has  a  child's  fondness 
for  fun,  freedom  from  care  for  the  morrow,  and  in- 
capacity to  keep  money  in  his  pocket;  but  some  planters 
will  talk  to  you  all  day  about  the  shrewdness  with  which 
he  manages  to  get  money  out  of  the  unsuspecting  white 
man;  and  when  it  comes  to  serious  crime,  it  is  not  every 
judge  who  makes  allowance  for  childishness  in  the  race. 
The  theory  that  the  negro  mind  ceases  to  develop  after 
adolescence  perhaps  has  something  in  it;  but  there  are 
too  many  hard-headed  and  far-sighted  persons,  both  full 
bloods  and  mulattoes,  who  have  unusual  minds,  to  permit 
the  problem  to  be  settled  by  the  phrase,  "  The  Negro  is 
a  child." 

Genuine  friends  and  well-wishers  of  the  Negro  feel 
intensely  the  irresponsibility  of  the  race.  A  business  man 
who  all  his  life  has  been  associated  with  them  says :  "  He 
has  all  the  good  qualities  of  the  lazy,  thriftless  person, 
he  is  amiable,  generous  and  tractable.  He  has  no  activity 
in  wrongdoing.  He  has  the  imitative  gift  in  a  remarkable 
degree,  and  always  I  love  him  for  his  faults,  he  is  without 
craftiness,  without  greed.  You  will  find  no  Rockefellers 
nor  Carnegies  among  them.  He  is  not  a  scoundrel  from 
calculation.  .  .  .  He  takes  as  his  pattern  the  highest  type  of 
white  man  he  is  acquainted  with.  He  has  no  sort  of  regard 
for  what  he  thinks  the  poor  white  trash.  ...  I  don't  know 
how  best  to  help  him,  but  I  like  him,  like  him  and  his 
careless  devil-may-care  ways.  I  like  him  because  his  whole 
soul  is  not  absorbed  in  this  craze  for  getting  money.  I 
like  him  because  he  does  no  evil  by  premeditation,  because 


NEGRO   CHARACTER 

he  sees  no  evil  in  everything  he  does,  then  goes  and  does  it. 
I  like  him  because  some  day  in  the  distant  past  I  was  like 
him." 

The  main  issue  must  be  fairly  faced  by  the  friends 
as  well  as  the  enemies  of  the  colored  race.  Measuring 
it  by  the  white  people  of  the  South,  or  by  the  correspond- 
ingly low  populations  of  Southern  or  Northern  cities,  the 
Negroes  as  a  people  appear  to  be  considerably  below  the 
Whites  in  mental  and  moral  status.  There  are  a  million 
or  two  exceptions,  but  they  do  not  break  the  force  of  the 
eight  or  nine  millions  of  average  Negroes.  A  larger  pro- 
portion of  the  mulattoes  than  of  the  pure  bloods  come  up 
to  the  white  race  in  ability;  but  if  fifty  thousand  people 
in  the  negro  quarter  of  New  Orleans  or  on  the  central 
Alabama  plantations  be  set  apart  and  compared  with  a 
similar  number  of  the  least  promising  Whites  in  the  same 
city  or  counties,  fewer  remarkable  individuals  and  less 
average  capacity  would  be  found.  Race  measured  by  race, 
the  Negro  is  inferior,  and  his  past  history  in  Africa  and 
in  America  leads  to  the  belief  that  he  will  remain  in- 
ferior in  race  stamina  and  race  achievement. 


CHAPTER   IX 

NEGRO   LIFE 

THE  negro  problem  in  the  South  cannot  be  solved, 
nor  is  much  light  thrown  upon  it  by  the  conditions 
of  the  race  elsewhere.  The  immediate  and  pressing 
issue  is  the  widespread  belief  that  the  great  numbers  of 
them  in  the  South  are  an  unsatisfactory  element  of  the 
population.  The  total  Negroes  in  the  United  States  in 
1900,  the  last  available  figures,  was  8,834,000.  They  are, 
however,  very  unequally  distributed  throughout  the  Union ; 
in  twenty  Northern  states  and  territories  there  are  only 
50,000  altogether;  in  the  states  from  Pennsylvania  north- 
ward there  are  about  400,000;  from  Ohio  westward  about 
500,000 ;  while  in  the  one  state  of  Georgia  there  are  over  a 
million;  7,898,000  lived  in  the  fifteen  former  slaveholding 
states;  7,187,000  in  the  eleven  seceding  states;  and  5,055,- 
000  in  the  seven  states  of  the  Lower  South.  At  the  rate  of 
increase  shown  during  the  last  forty  years  there  will  soon 
be  10,000,000  in  the  South  alone.  These  figures  have  since 
1900  been  somewhat  disturbed  by  the  natural  growth  of 
population  and  by  the  interstate  movement,  so  that  the 
proportion  of  blacks  in  the  North  is  doubtless  now  a  little 
larger;  but  the  fact  remains  that  the  habitat  of  the  black 
is  in  the  Southern  States.  Even  there,  great  variations 
occur  from  state  to  state,  and  from  place  to  place.  In 
Briscoe  County,  Texas,  there  are  1,253  Whites  and  not  a 

106 


NEGRO   LIFE 

single  Negro;  in  Beaufort  County,  S.  C.,  there  are  3,349 
Whites  and  32,137  Africans;  on  the  island  of  St.  Helena  in 
this  last  county  are  8,700  colored  and  125  white  people; 
and  on  Fenwick's  Island  there  are  something  like  100 
Negroes  and  not  a  white  person. 

As  between  country  and  city,  the  Negro  is  a  rural  man ; 
the  only  Southern  cities  containing  over  50,000  of  them 
in  the  Lower  South  are  New  Orleans  and  perhaps  Atlanta ; 
in  the  former  slaveholding  states  out  of  8,000,000  Negroes 
only  about  1,000,000  lived  in  cities  of  8,000  people  and 
upwards,  which  is  less  in  proportion  than  the  Whites.  In 
a  very  black  district  like  the  Delta  of  the  Mississippi  they 
form  a  majority  of  the  city  population.  In  72  of  the 
Southern  places  having  a  population  of  2,500  or  more  at 
least  half  the  population  is  African;  but  their  drift  city- 
ward is  less  marked  than  that  of  the  white  people,  eighty- 
five  per  cent  of  all  the  Negroes  live  outside  of  cities  and 
towns.  The  Negroes  have  no  race  tradition  of  city  life  in 
Africa,  are  no  fonder  than  Whites  of  moving  from  country 
to  city,  and  throw  no  unendurable  strain  on  the  city  gov- 
ernments. 

A  favorite  assertion  is  that  the  American  Negroes  are 
either  dying  out  or  nearing  the  point  where  the  death- 
rate  will  exceed  the  birth-rate.  Hoffmann,  in  his  "  Eace 
Traits,"  has  examined  this  question  in  a  painstaking  way, 
and  proves  conclusively  that  both  North  and  South  the 
death-rate  of  the  black  race  is  much  higher  than  that  of 
the  Whites.  In  Philadelphia,  for  instance,  the  ratios  are 
30  to  1,000  against  20  to  1,000.  Upon  this  point  there 
are  no  trustworthy  figures  for  the  whole  country;  but  an 
eighth  of  the  Negroes  live  in  the  so-called  "  registration 
area,"  which  includes  most  of  the  large  cities ;  and  in  that 
area  the  death-rate  in  1900  is  computed  at  30  to  1,000  for 
8  107 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

Negroes  and  17  to  1,000  for  the  Whites.  This  excess  is 
largely  due  to  the  frightful  mortality  among  negro  chil- 
dren, which  is  almost  double  that  among  Whites  in  the 
same  community.  In  Washington  in  1900  one  fifth  of  the 
white  children  under  a  year  old  died  and  almost  one  half 
of  the  colored  children. 

When  Hoffmann  attempts  to  show  that  the  negro 
death-rate  is  accelerating,  he  is  obliged  to  depend  upon 
scanty  figures  from  a  few  Southern  cities.  In  Charleston, 
for  instance,  the  records  show  in  the  forties  (a  period  of  yel- 
low fever)  a  white  death-rate  of  16  and  a  colored  death-rate 
of  20,  against  recent  rates  of  22  and  44  to  the  1,000  re- 
spectively; but  in  New  Orleans  Mr.  Hoffmann's  own  fig- 
ures show  a  reduction  of  the  colored  death-rate  from  52 
in  the  fifties  to  40  in  the  nineties.  The  only  possible  con- 
clusion from  these  conflicting  results  is  that  the  earlier 
mortality  statistics  on  which  he  relies  are  few  and  un- 
reliable. 

Nevertheless,  the  present  conditions  of  negro  mortality 
are  frightful.  They  appear  to  be  due  primarily  to  igno- 
rance and  neglect  in  the  care  of  children,  and  secondly, 
to  an  increase  of  dangerous  diseases.  The  frequent  state- 
ment that  consumption  was  almost  unknown  among  Ne- 
groes in  slavery  times  is  abundantly  disproved  by  Hoff- 
mann; but  the  disease  is  undoubtedly  gaining,  for  much 
the  same  reason  that  it  ravages  the  Indians  in  Alaska, 
namely,  that  the  people  now  live  in  close  houses  which 
become  saturated  with  the  virus  of  the  disease.  Syphilis 
is  also  fearfully  prevalent,  and  the  most  alarming  state- 
ments are  made  by  physicians  who  have  practice  or  hos- 
pital service  among  the  Negroes;  but  the  testimony  as  to 
the  extent  of  the  disease  is  conflicting,  and  there  are  other 
race  elements  in  the  United  States  which  are  depleted  by 

108 


NEGRO    LIFE 

venereal  disease.  The  blacks  also  suffer  from  the  use  of 
liquor,  though  drunkards  are  little  known  among  the  cot- 
ton hands;  but  drugs,  particularly  cocaine  and  morphine, 
are  widely  used.  In  one  country  store  a  clerk  has  been 
known  to  make  up  a  hundred  and  fifty  packages  of  cocaine 
in  a  single  night. 

Notwithstanding  the  undoubtedly  high  death-rate,  the 
birth-rate  is  so  much  greater  that  at  every  census  the 
negro  race  is  shown  to  be  still  growing;  as  Murphy  says: 
"  Whenever  the  Negro  has  looked  down  the  lane  of  an- 
nihilation he  has  always  had  the  good  sense  to  go  around 
the  other  way."  The  census  of  1870  was  so  defective  that 
it  must  be  thrown  out  of  account,  but  the  negro  popula- 
tion, which  was  about  4,400,000  in  1860,  and  6,600,000  in 
1880,  had  grown  to  8,800,000  in  1900.  It  is  true  that  the 
rate  of  increase  is  falling  off  both  absolutely  and  in  pro- 
portion to  the  white  race.  In  the  South  Central  group  of 
states,  which  includes  most  of  the  Lower  South,  the  popu- 
lation increased  about  forty-eight  per  cent  from  1860  to 
1880  and  only  thirty-nine  per  cent  in  the  next  double  de- 
cade; while  the  white  population  has  in  both  periods  in- 
creased at  about  sixty  per  cent,  with  a  rising  ratio. 

The  urban  Negro  has  a  high  death-rate,  not  only  in  the 
South  but  in  Northern  cities;  in  Boston  and  Indianapolis 
the  birth-rate  of  the  Negroes  does  not  keep  pace  with  the 
deaths,  and  they  would  disappear  but  for  steady  accessions 
from  the  South.  The  Southern  blacks  on  the  land  are 
doing  better  and  are  growing  steadily;  neither  statistics 
nor  observations  support  the  theory  that  the  Negro  is  dying 
out  in  the  South ;  and  comparatively  slight  changes  in  re- 
sort to  skilled  physicians,  in  the  spread  of  trained  nurses, 
in  infants'  food,  may  check  the  child  mortality.  On  the 
other  hand,  any  increase  in  thrift  and  in  saving  habits  will 

109 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

almost  certainly  affect  the  size  of  families -and  diminish 
the  average  birth-rate. 

The  very  words  "  The  Negro  "  suggest  the  misleading 
idea  that  there  is  within  the  Southern  states  a  clearly 
defined  negro  race.  In  fact,  physically,  intellectually,  and 
morally,  it  is  as  much  subdivided  as  the  white  race. 
What  is  supposed  to  be  the  pure  African  type  is  the 
Guinea  Negro,  very  black,  very  uncouth,  and  hard  to  civ- 
ilize. What  these  people  are  is  easy  to  find  out,  for  a 
great  part  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Sea  Islands  of  South 
Carolina  and  Georgia  are  of  that  race  and  speak  what 
is  called  the  Gullah  dialect,  which  Joel  Chandler  Harris 
has  preserved  in  his  "  Daddy  Jack."  Besides  these  chil- 
dren and  grandchildren  of  imported  Negroes  there  is  near 
Mobile  a  small  group  of  sturdy  people  perfectly  well  known 
to  have  been  brought  into  the  United  States  in  1858  in  the 
yacht  Wanderer.  These  may  be  part  of  a  cargo  from  which 
Senator  Tillman's  family  bought  a  gang,  and  he  says  of 
them:  "These  poor  wretches,  half  starved  as  they  have 
been,  were  the  most  miserable  lot  of  human  beings — the 
nearest  to  the  missing  link  with  the  monkey  I  have  ever 
put  my  eyes  on." 

The  whole  African  problem  is  immeasurably  compli- 
cated and  contorted  by  the  fact  that  of  the  Negroes  in 
the  United  States  not  more  than  four  fifths  at  the  highest 
are  pure  blacks.  The  remainder  are  partially  Caucasian 
in  race,  and  occupy  a  midway  position,  often  of  unhappi- 
ness  and  sometimes  of  downright  misery.  As  to  the  num- 
ber of  mulattoes,  there  is  no  trustworthy  statistical  state- 
ment; the  census  figures  for  1890  reported  that  out  of 
the  total  "negro"  population  eighteen  per  cent  was  mu- 
latto in  the  northern  group  of  Southern  states,  and  about 
fifteen  per  cent  in  the  Lower  South ;  but  these  figures  are 

110 


NEGEO   LIFE 

confessedly  defective  and  are  probably  vitiated  by  in- 
cluding some  members  of  the  lighter  negro  races  as  mu- 
lattoes. 

Shannon,  in  his  "  Eacial  Integrity,"  while  unhesitat- 
ingly accepting  these  very  imperfect  figures,  attempts  to 
supplement  them  by  calculations  made  from  an  inspection 
of  crowds ;  and  it  is  his  opinion  that  in  the  smaller  cities, 
the  towns  and  villages,  about  twenty-two  per  cent  are 
mulattoes — "  and  that  unless  this  amalgamation  is  effectu- 
ally checked  in  some  way,  this  ratio  will  continue  to  rise 
until  practically  the  whole  of  the  negro  race  will  come  to 
be  of  mixed  blood."  Shufeldt,  in  his  "  The  Negro,  A  Men- 
ace," asserts  that  at  least  sixty  per  cent  of  the  Negroes 
have  some  white  blood,  and  is  confident  that  the  proportion 
is  increasing.  The  census  authorities  of  1900  commit 
themselves  only  to  the  generalization  that  the  mulattoes 
are  most  numerous  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  Whites 
in  any  given  community.  As  to  the  testimony  of  observers, 
there  is  every  variety  of  appearance.  You  may  see  crowds 
of  Negroes  at  a  railway  station  in  Georgia,  of  whom  two 
thirds  are  purely  mulatto ;  you  may  visit  islands  in  South 
Carolina  in  which  not  one  fortieth  part  have  white  blood. 

The  number  of  mulattoes  is  less  important  than  their 
character  and  general  relation  to  the  negro  problem. 
Most  Southerners  assert  and  doubtless  believe  that  the  mu- 
latto is  physically  weak;  but  you  see  them  working  side 
by  side  with  pure  blacks,  as  roustabouts  and  plantation 
hands,  and  some  planters  tell  you  that  one  is  as  good  as 
another  in  the  field.  People  assert  that  mulattoes  are  more 
susceptible  to  disease,  so  that  they  are  dying  out;  and 
some  authorities  say  that  tbere  are  no  mulatto  children 
after  the  third  or  fourth  generation.  There  is  no  scientific 
ground  for  these  assertions,  and  one  of  the  highest  medical 

111 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

authorities  in  the  South  is  of  the  conviction  that  except 
for  a  somewhat  greater  liability  to  tuberculosis  they  are 
as  healthy  as  the  full  bloods.  Of  course,  the  greater  num- 
ber of  mulattoes  in  the  United  States  are  the  children  of 
mulattoes,  and  to  what  extent  the  proportion  is  kept  up  by 
further  accessions  from  the  white  race  is  absolutely  im- 
possible to  determine.  Many  statements  on  the  whole  sub- 
ject come  from  people  who  hate  the  mulatto  and  like  to 
think  that  he  is  a  poor  creature  who  is  going  to  relieve  the 
world  of  a  disagreeable  problem  by  leaving  it. 

From  the  same  source  comes  the  assertion  that  the  mu- 
latto is  fundamentally  vicious,  frequently  made  by  people 
who  argue  in  the  same  breath  that  the  so-called  progress 
of  the  negro  race  means  nothing,  because  it  is  all  due  to 
mulattoes.  The  mulattoes  do  include  a  much  larger  pro- 
portion of  the  educated  than  the  pure  bloods,  and  hence 
are  more  likely  to  furnish  such  criminals  as  forgers  and 
embezzlers;  but  there  seems  no  ground  for  the  widespread 
belief  that  the  mulattoes  are  more  criminal  than  the  pure 
blacks.  That  there  is  a  special  temptation  more  likely 
to  come  to  some  members  of  the  mulatto  section  than  to 
the  pure  black  was  suggested  by  a  Southern  gentleman 
when  he  said:  "The  black  girls  won't  work  and  the  yel- 
low girls  don't  have  to,  they  are  looked  after ! "  When 
asked  to  suggest  who  it  was  who  looked  after  them,  the 
conversation  languished.  The  question  of  the  character 
of  the  mulatto  is  a  serious  one,  because  most  of  the  spokes- 
men and  markedly  successful  people  of  the  race  are  not 
pure  bloods ;  and  because  of  the  unhappy  position  of  thou- 
sands of  men  and  women  who  have  the  aptitudes,  the 
tastes,  and  the  educations  of  white  people ;  yet  in  the  com- 
mon estimation  are  bracketed  with  the  rudest,  most  ig- 
norant and  lowest  of  a  crude,  ignorant  and  low  race. 

112 


NEGKO   LIFE 

The  status  of  the  Negroes  is  in  many  ways  altered  by 
the  steady  though  limited  movement  from  South  to  North. 
The  Negroes  are  subject  to  waves  of  excitement,  and  in 
1879  a  colored  agitator  created  a  furore  for  colonization 
by  spreading  abroad  the  news  that  in  Liberia  there  was  a 
"  bread  tree  "  and  another  tree  which  ran  lard  instead  of 
sap,  so  that  all  you  had  to  do  was  to  cut  from  one  and 
catch  from  the  other.  A  systematic  effort  has  been  made 
to  settle  colored  people  in  Indiana,  in  order  to  hold  that 
State  in  the  Republican  column ;  and  there  are  now  prob- 
ably nearly  a  hundred  thousand  there,  a  third  of  whom 
are  settled  in  Indianapolis,  where  they  furnish  a  race 
problem  of  growing  seriousness.  The  Negroes  in  the  city 
of  Washington  have  increased  eight  times  in  forty  years. 
They  have  repeatedly  been  brought  into  the  North  as 
strike  breakers,  often  with  the  result  of  serious  riots.  In 
1879  thousands  of  them  left  various  parts  of  the  South 
for  Kansas,  and  in  some  cases  the  river  boats  refused  to 
take  them.  As  a  result  some  Southern  states  passed 
statutes  requiring  heavy  license  fees  (sometimes  as  much 
as  $1,000  a  year)  from  labor  agents  who  should  induce 
people  to  go  to  other  states.  Nevertheless,  there  are  now 
over  50,000  in  Kansas  and  over  100,000  in  the  neighboring 
new  State  of  Oklahoma.  At  present  there  are  in  New 
York  and  Philadelphia  nearly  a  hundred  agents  who  draw 
Negroes  northward,  and  they  bring  thousands  of  people 
every  year,  chiefly  to  enter  domestic  service.  The  move- 
ment is  ill  organized  and  does  not  by  any  means  include 
the  most  thrifty,  since  passage  money  is  often  advanced 
by  the  agents. 

The  numbers  of  the  Negroes  are  not  in  themselves 
alarming.  In  most  Southern  states  they  are  fewer  in 
proportion  than  the  foreign  element  in  many  Northern 

113 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

states.  The  hostility  to  the  Negro  is  not  based  on  his 
numbers,  but  on  his  supposed  inferiority  of  character. 
On  this  point  there  is  a  painful  lack  of  accurate  knowledge, 
because  there  is  so  little  contact  between  the  Whites  and 
their  negro  neighbors.  The  white  opinion  of  the  blacks 
is  founded  with  little  knowledge  of  the  home  life  of  the 
other  race.  How  many  white  people  in  the  city  of  Atlanta, 
for  instance,  have  actually  been  inside  the  house  of  a  pros- 
perous, educated  Negro?  How  many  have  actually  sat 
over  the  fire  of  a  one-room  negro  cabin?  The  Southern 
Whites,  with  few  exceptions,  teach  no  Negroes,  attend  no 
negro  church  services,  penetrate  into  no  negro  society, 
and  they  see  the  Negro  near  at  hand  chiefly  as  unsatisfac- 
tory domestic  servants,  as  field  hands  of  doubtful  profit, 
as  neglectful  and  terrified  patients,  as  clients  in  criminal 
suits  or  neighborhood  squabbles,  as  prisoners  in  the  dock, 
as  convicted  criminals,  as  wretched  objects  for  the  ven- 
geance of  a  mob. 

An  encouraging  sign  is  the  disposition  of  both  white 
and  colored  investigators  to  study  the  Negro  in  his  home. 
Professor  DuBois  has  directed  such  researches  both  in 
Southern  cities  and  in  the  open  country;  there  are  also 
two  monographs  upon  the  religious  life  of  the  Negro,  one 
directed  by  Vanderbilt  University  and  the  other  by  At- 
lanta University;  and  Mr.  Odum,  of  the  University  of 
Mississippi,  has  prepared  a  study  upon  the  Negro  in 
fifty  towns  in  various  states  which,  still  in  manuscript,  is 
one  of  the  most  instructive  inquiries  ever  made  into  negro 
life. 

Naturally,  such  investigations  are  easier  in  the  cities, 
and  we  know  much  more  about  the  urban  Negro,  a  sixth 
of  the  population,  than  of  the  rural  black,  who  are  five 
sixths.  In  the  large  cities  there  is  an  African  population, 

114 


NEGRO   LIFE 

a  considerable  part  of  which  is  prosperous.  Here  are  the 
best  colored  schools,  the  greatest  demand  for  African  labor, 
the  largest  opportunity  for  building  up  small  businesses 
among  the  Negroes  themselves.  Here  are  to  be  found 
most  of  the  rich  or  well-to-do  Negroes;  and  there  is  a 
large  contingent  of  steady  men  employed  in  all  kinds  of 
capacities,  about  whom  there  is  little  complaint.  On  the 
other  hand,  a  broad  fringe  of  the  population  lives  in 
houses  or  rooms  actually  less  spacious  and  less  decent  than 
the  one-room  cabin  in  the  fields.  This  floating  and  un- 
steady part  of  the  negro  race  finds  a  favorable  habitat  in 
the  towns  and  small  cities,  where  there  is  less  opportunity 
for  steady  employment  than  in  the  large  cities.  From  this 
class  come  the  domestic  servants,  who  will  be  considered 
in  a  later  chapter. 

The  typical  social  life  of  the  Negro  is  that  of  the  field 
laborer,  who  lives  in  a  poor  and  crude  way.  The  most 
common  residence  is  the  one-room  house,  without  a  glass 
window,  set  in  a  barren  and  unfenced  waste,  with  a  few 
wretched  outhouses,  the  worst  cabins  being  on  the  land 
of  the  least  progressive  and  humane  planters.  You  may 
see  on  the  land  of  a  wealthy  White  one-room  houses  with 
clunks  between  the  logs  such  that  the  rain  drives  into 
them,  the  tenant  family  crowded  into  the  space  between 
the  fireplace  and  the  unenticing  beds,  dirty  clothing  hang- 
ing about,  hardly  a  chair  to  sit  upon,  outside  the  house 
not  a  paling  or  a  building  of  any  kind,  and  pigs  rooting 
on  the  ground  under  the  floor.  On  a  tolerable  Mississippi 
plantation  with  seventy-four  families,  seventeen  had  one- 
room  cabins,  and  one  of  those  families  comprised  eleven 
persons.  Some  Southerners  have  a  theory  that  you  can 
be  sure  that  a  cabin  with  a  garden  is  occupied  by  a  White ; 
but  that  is  a  fallacy,  for  there  are  many  negro  gardens, 

115 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

although  some  planters  prohibit  them  on  the  ground  that 
they  will  become  weed  spots.  In  the  cities  the  Negroes 
live  for  the  most  part  in  settlements  by  themselves,  in 
which  there  are  miserable  tenements,  usually  owned  by 
white  people  and  no  better  than  the  one-room  country 
house.  Of  course,  thrifty  colored  people  in  country  or  city 
are  able  to  build  comfortable  houses  for  themselves. 

Inasmuch  as  both  father  and  mother  work  either  in 
the  fields  or  in  domestic  service,  there  is  little  family  life 
either  in  country  or  city.  The  food  is  poor  and  monoton- 
ous; it  is  chiefly  salt  pork,  bacon,  corn  bread  (usually 
pone),  and  some  sort  of  molasses.  Fresh  meat  is  almost 
impossible  to  get  outside  of  town,  chickens  are  raised 
though  not  very  plentiful,  vegetables  are  few.  For  little 
children  this  diet  is  intolerable,  and  that  is  why  so  many 
of  them  die  in  infancy.  Close  observers  declare  that  Ne- 
groes are  brutal  to  their  children,  but  one  may  be  much 
among  them  without  seeing  any  instances.  They  are  also 
accused  of  deserting  their  old  people;  children  often  wan- 
der away  and  lose  track  of  their  parents,  but  you  will  find 
districts  where  the  old  are  well  looked  after  by  their  kin- 
dred. The  most  serious  interference  in  family  life  is  the 
field  work  of  the  women,  and  the  breaking  up  of  families 
by  the  desertion  of  the  father;  but  somehow  in  all  these 
family  jars  the  children  are  seldom  left  without  anyone 
to  care  for  them. 

Public  amusements  are  almost  wanting  for  the  Negro. 
They  are  commonly  not  admitted  to  white  theaters,  con- 
certs, and  other  similar  performances.  In  the  country 
there  is  nothing  better  than  to  crowd  the  plantation  store 
of  a  Saturday  night  in  a  sort  of  club.  Few  of  them  read 
for  pleasure,  and  there  is  little  to  relieve  the  monotony. 
Perhaps  for  that  reason  they  are  fond  of  going  about  the 

116 


NEGRO    LIFE 

country,  and  you  see  them  everywhere  on  horseback,  or  in 
little  bull  carts,  or  on  foot.  They  will  spend  their  last  dol- 
lar for  an  excursion  on  the  railroad,  and  at  the  turn  of  the 
year,  January  1st,  many  of  them  may  be  seen  moving. 
The  circus  is  one  of  the  greatest  delights  of  the  Negro; 
he  will  travel  many  miles  for  this  pleasure.  The  field 
hand  is  thrown  back  on  coarse  enjoyments;  hard  drink- 
ing is  frequent  among  both  men  and  women,  yet  the  habit- 
ual drunkard  is  rare ;  the  country  Negro  is  fond  of  dances, 
which  often  turn  out  unseemly  and  lead  to  affrays  and 
murders. 

For  their  social  and  jovial  needs  Negroes  find  some 
satisfaction  in  their  church  life.  Their  own  statisticians 
claim  3,254,000  communicants  worshiping  in  27,000 
church  buildings,  of  which  the  greater  part  are  in  the  coun- 
try. Contrary  to  expectation  forty  years  ago,  the  Negroes 
have  been  little  attracted  to  the  Catholic  Church,  which 
is  so  democratic  in  its  worship,  and  possesses  a  ritual  which 
might  be  expected  to  appeal  to  negro  nature.  Nearly  half 
the  church  members  are  some  sort  of  Baptists,  and  half  of 
the  rest  adhere  to  the  Methodist  denominations.  Some  city 
churches  have  buildings  costing  twenty,  thirty,  and  even 
fifty  thousand  dollars,  and  they  are  pertinacious  about 
raising  money  for  construction  and  other  similar  purposes. 

These  churches  do  not  represent  an  advanced  type  of 
piety.  Conversions  are  violent  and  lapses  frequent,  and 
the  minister  is  not  certain  to  lend  the  weight  of  his  con- 
duct to  his  words.  There  are  many  genuinely  pious  and 
hard-working  ministers,  but  at  least  half  of  them  in  both 
city  and  country  are  distrusted  by  the  Whites  and  discred- 
ited by  their  own  people.  Simply  educating  the  minister 
does  not  solve  the  problem,  for  what  the  people  want  is 
somebody  who  will  arouse  them  to  a  pleasurable  excite- 

117 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

ment.  That  is,  the  present  type  of  piety  among  the  ne- 
gro churches  is  about  that  which  prevailed  among  the 
white  people  along  the  frontier  fifty  years  ago,  and  which 
has  not  entirely  died  out  in  the  backwoods  and  the  moun- 
tains. A  genuine  colored  service  is  extremely  picturesque, 
the  preacher  working  like  a  locomotive  going  up  a  heavy 
grade,  while  the  hearers  assist  him  with  cries  of,  "Talk 
to  um,  preacher — Great  God — Ha!  Ha!  You  is  right, 
brudder — Preaching  now — Talk  'bout  um — Holy  Lord." 
Then  the  brethren  are  called  upon  to  pray;  in  that  musi- 
cal intoning  which  is  so  appropriate  for  the  African  voice ; 
then  the  minister  lines  out  the  hymns  and  the  congrega- 
tion bursts  out  into  that  combination  of  different  minor 
keys  which  is  the  peculiar  gift  of  the  negro  race. 

Another  negro  enjoyment  is  the  secret  orders,  which 
are  almost  as  numerous  as  the  churches  and  probably  have 
as  many  male  members.  These  societies  are  first  of  all 
burial  and  benefit  orders  with  dues  ranging  from  fifty 
cents  a  month  upward,  for  which  sick  benefits  of  four  dol- 
lars a  week  are  paid  and  about  forty  dollars  for  burial. 
The  societies  build  lodge  houses  not  only  in  cities  but  in 
plantation  regions;  and  the  judgment  of  those  who  have 
most  carefully  examined  them  is  that  they  are  on  the  whole 
a  good  thing.  They  give  training  in  public  speaking  and 
in  common  action;  they  furnish  employment  to  managers 
and  clerks;  and  their  considerable  funds  are  for  the  most 
part  honestly  managed.  Some  of  them  publish  news- 
papers chiefly  devoted  to  publishing  the  names  of  officers 
and  members.  In  Mississippi  there  are  thirty-four  licensed 
orders  with  8,000  members.  They  carry  $30,000,000  of 
risks,  and  in  a  year  paid  $430,000  to  policy  holders.  Nat- 
urally they  have  rather  high-sounding  names,  such  as 
"  Grand  Court  of  Calanthe,"  "  Lone  Star  of  Race  Pride," 

118 


NEGRO   LIFE 

"  United  Brethren  of  Friendship  and  Sisters  of  Mysteri- 
ous Ten,"  "  Sons  and  Daughters  of  I  Will  Arise."  Some 
efforts  are  making  to  build  up  national  societies  such  as 
the  "Royal  Trust  Company"  and  "The  Ethiopian  Pro- 
gressive Association  of  America,"  which,  according  to  its 
own  statement,  is  "  incorporated  with  an  authorized  Capi- 
tal Stock  a  hundred  times  larger  than  the  next  most 
heavily  capitalized  Negro  corporation  on  Earth.  It  is 
designed  to  fraternize,  build  and  cement  the  vital  interests 
of  Negroes  throughout  the  world  into  one  colossal  Union." 
The  order  and  the  church  are  both  social  clubs  and  in- 
clude a  good  part  of  the  race  both  in  city  and  country, 
and  these  organizations  are  the  work  of  the  last  forty  years, 
for  in  slavery  times  the  negro  churches  were  closely 
watched  by  the  Whites,  and  secret  societies  would  have 
been  impossible. 


CHAPTER   X 

THE   NEGRO   AT   WORK 

NOBODY  accepts  church  or  fraternal  orders  as  the 
measure  of  the  Negro's  place  in  the  community, 
for  the  gospel  which  he  hears  most  often  is  the 
gospel  of  work ;  and  that  comes  less  from  the  preacher  than 
from  the  reformer ;  as  DuBois  says :  "  Plain  it  is  to  us  that 
what  the  world  seeks  through  desert  and  wild  we  have  with- 
in our  threshold — a  stalwart  laboring  force,  suited  to  the 
semi-tropics."  The  labor  system  and  labor  ideal  of  the 
South  are  very  different  from  those  of  the  North.  First  of 
all,  there  is  the  old  tradition  of  slavery  times  that  manual 
toil  is  ignoble ;  that  it  is  menial  to  handle  prime  materials, 
and  to  buy  and  sell  goods  across  the  counter.  But  some- 
body must  perform  hard  labor  if  the  community  is  to  go 
on;  and  there  is  an  immense  field  for  uneducated  men. 
Besides  the  so-called  "  public  works  " — that  is,  turpentine, 
sawmills,  building  levees  and  railroads,  and  clearing  land- 
there  is  the  pulling  and  hauling  and  loading  in  the  ports, 
the  rough  work  of  oil  mills  and  furnaces  and  mines,  and 
above  all  the  raising  of  cotton,  where  the  demand  for  labor 
is  always  greater  than  the  supply. 

Some  of  this  labor  is  done  by  white  gangs,  and  many  of 
the  blacks  are  engaged  in  other  and  higher  pursuits;  but 
the  chief  function  of  the  Negro  in  the  South  is  the  rough 
labor  which  in  the  North  was  once  chiefly  performed  by 

120 


THE    NEGRO    AT    WORK 

Irishmen,  later  by  Italians,  and  now  in  many  places  by 
Slavs.  This  vast  industrial  system  is  almost  wholly  offi- 
cered by  Whites,  who  are  the  owners,  employers,  and  man- 
agers of  nearly  every  piece  of  property  in  the  South  on 
which  laborers  are  employed.  They  set,  so  far  as  they  can, 
the  terms  of  employment ;  but  what  they  get  in  actual  work 
is  settled  by  the  Negroes,  notwithstanding  a  condition  of 
dependence  hard  to  realize  in  the  North.  It  is  firmly 
fixed  in  the  average  white  employer's  mind  that  the  Ne- 
gro exists  in  order  to  work  for  him,  and  that  every  attempt 
to  raise  the  Negro  must  steer  clear  of  any  suspicion  that 
it  will  lead  him  to  abandon  work  for  the  white  man.  The 
slow  drift  of  Negroes  to  the  towns  and  cities  cannot  be 
prevented,  nor  some  shifting  from  plantation  to  planta- 
tion ;  but  the  white  man's  ideal  is  that  the  Negro  is  to  stay 
where  he  is,  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  them  are  liv- 
ing within  sight  of  the  spot  where  they  were  born. 

Therefore,  whoever  wishes  to  know  the  conditions  of 
the  typical  Negro  must  look  for  them  on  the  plantation, 
where  he  is  almost  the  only  laborer,  and  is  at  present  pro- 
digiously wanted.  As  a  keen  Southern  observer  says: 
"  The  protection  of  the  Negro  is  the  scarcity  of  labor  " ; 
for  it  is  literally  true  that  some  plantations  could  profit- 
ably employ  more  than  double  the  hands  that  they  can 
get.  Nevertheless  it  is  an  axiom  in  the  South  that  "the 
nigger  will  not  work."  Thus  General  Stephen  D.  Lee 
gives  currency  to  the  declaration  that  "  It  is  a  fact  known 
to  those  best  acquainted  with  the  negro  race  since  the  war, 
that  more  and  more  of  them  are  becoming  idle,  and  are  not 
giving  us  as  good  work  as  they  used  to  do."  Another  au- 
thority says :  "  Some  few  of  the  race  are  reliable — many 
hundreds  are  not.  The  farmer  cannot  get  his  land  turned 
in  the  winter,  because  ninety  hundredths  of  these  laborers 

121 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

have  not  made  up  their  minds  as  to  what  they  want  to  do 
in  the  coming  year.  All  would  go  to  town  if  fuel  was  not 
high  and  house  rent  must  be  paid."  An  engineer  in  charge 
of  large  gangs  in  Galveston  says  he  never  would  employ 
Negroes  if  he  could  help  it,  because  they  cannot  be  de- 
pended upon  to  rush  work  in  an  emergency.  A  planter 
met  on  a  Mississippi  steamer  declares  that  wage  hands  at 
a  dollar  a  day  would  not  actually  put  in  more  than  two 
thirds  of  the  hours  of  labor;  and  would  accomplish  no 
more  in  two  weeks  than  a  cropper  working  on  shares  would 
do  in  two  days.  A  Negro  who  employs  large  numbers  of 
men  says :  "  If  a  Negro  can  get  what  he  wants  without 
working  he  will  do  it." 

Another  standard  accusation  is  that  the  Negro  will 
not  work  steadily;  that  he  never  turns  up  on  Monday, 
and  will  leave  for  frivolous  reasons;  that  if  he  has 
been  working  for  five  dollars  a  week  and  you  raise  his 
wages  to  ten  dollars  he  will  simply  work  the  three  days 
necessary  to  earn  the  five  dollars,  having  adjusted  himself 
to  that  scale.  In  this  charge  there  is  a  good  deal  of  truth, 
but  the  difficulty  is  not  confined  to  the  African  race. 
Northern  employers  are  well  acquainted  with  the  hand 
who  never  works  on  Monday;  and  in  the  cotton  mills  of 
South  Carolina,  which  are  carried  on  solely  by  white  labor, 
it  is  customary  to  have  a  "  Reserve  of  Labor "  of  one 
fourth  or  one  fifth  in  order  to  meet  the  case  of  the  hands 
who  wish  to  go  fishing,  or  simply  are  not  willing  to  work 
six  days  a  week.  Probably  the  remedy  for  the  Negro  is 
to  increase  his  wants  to  the  point  where  he  cannot  satisfy 
them  by  less  than  a  whole  week's  work. 

As  to  the  general  accusation  that  the  Negro  will  not 
work,  many  white  employers  scout  the  suggestion.  A 
brickmaker  in  St.  Louis  has  for  years  employed  them  and 

122 


THE    NEGRO   AT    WORK 

likes  them  better  than  any  other  kind  of  labor.  A  Florida 
lumberman  says :  "  I  would  not  give  one  black  man  in  the 
lumber  camps  of  the  South  for  three  Italians,  or  three  of 
any  other  foreigners.  We  can't  get  along  without  them, 
and  for  one,  I  don't  want  to  try."  And  planter  after 
planter  will  tell  you  that,  however  it  may  be  with  his 
neighbors,  he  has  no  trouble  in  keeping  his  people  up  to 
their  work. 

Another  reason  for  skepticism  is  what  one  sees  as  one 
goes  through  the  country.  In  the  first  place,  enormous 
amounts  of  cotton  are  raised  where  there  is  nothing  but 
negro  labor.  In  the  second  place,  even  in  winter,  the  season 
of  the  year  when  the  Negro  is  least  busy,  there  are  plenty 
of  evidences  that  he  is  at  work  and  likely  to  keep  at  it. 
He  may  be  seen  at  work  on  his  own  little  farm,  taking 
care  of  his  stock,  picking  his  cotton,  fixing  up  or  adding 
to  his  house,  his  fifteen-year-old  girl  plowing  with  one 
mule.  A  Negro's  farm  is  generally  more  slovenly  than 
a  white  man's,  but  the  crops  are  raised.  You  see  the  hired 
hands  on  the  great  plantations,  driving  four-mule  teams, 
working  in  the  gins,  coming  for  directions  about  breaking 
ground.  The  truth  is  that  the  Negro  on  the  land  is  do- 
ing well,  far  better  than  might  be  expected  from  people 
who  have  so  little  outlook  and  hope  of  improvement,  work- 
ing more  intelligently  and  doing  better  than  the  fellahin 
of  Egypt,  the  ryots  of  India,  the  native  Filipino,  quite  as 
well  as  the  lowest  end  of  the  Mountain  Whites  and  the 
remnants  of  the  lowland  Poor  Whites.  It  is  a  race-slan- 
der, refutable  by  any  honest  investigator,  that  the  Amer- 
ican Negro  as  a  race  is  unwilling  to  work. 

It  is  another  question  how  far  they  are  competent  to 
act  as  foremen  or  independent  workers.  An  iron  manufac- 
turer in  Alabama  says  he  has  found  that  the  moment  Ne- 
»  123 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

groes  are  promoted  to  anything  requiring  thinking  power 
they  fail  disastrously,  and  ruin  all  the  machinery  put  in 
their  charge;  as  miners  they  handle  tools  with  skill  just 
as  long  as  they  are  furnished  the  motive  power,  but  they 
have  little  discretion  or  ambition.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  writer  has  seen  in  the  Richmond  Locomotive  Works 
white  men  working  under  negro  gang  bosses  without  fric- 
tion; and  in  many  parts  of  the  South  the  building  trades 
are  almost  wholly  in  the  hands  of  blacks. 

Why  should  the  belief  of  the  African's  incapacity  be 
so  widely  disseminated?  First,  because  nineteen  twenti- 
eths of  the  people  who  talk  about  the  lazy  Negro  have  no 
personal  knowledge  of  the  field  hand  at  work.  Their  im- 
pression of  the  race  is  gained  from  the  thriftless  and  irreg- 
ular Negroes  in  the  towns  and  cities.  If  we  formed  out 
notions  of  Northern  farm  industry  from  the  gypsies,  the 
dock  loafers,  the  idle  youths  shooting  craps  behind  a  board 
fence,  we  should  believe  a  generalization  that  Northern 
farmers  are  lazy.  The  shiftless  population  living  on  odd 
jobs  and  the  earnings  of  the  women  as  domestic  servants, 
committing  petty  crimes  and  getting  into  rows  with  the 
white  youths,  cannot  be  more  than  one  tenth  of  the  Ne- 
groes, and  the  poorest  tenth  at  that. 

Domestic  service  is  the  most  exasperating  point  of 
contact  between  the  races.  It  has  been  reduced  to  a  sys- 
tem of  day  labor,  for  not  one  in  a  hundred  of  the  house 
servants  spend  the  night  in  the  place  where  they  are  em- 
ployed. Great  numbers  of  the  women  are  the  only  wage 
earners  in  their  family  and  leave  their  little  children  at 
home  day  after  day  so  that  they  may  care  for  the  chil- 
dren of  white  families.  Some  mistresses  scold  and  fume 
and  threaten,  some  have  the  patience  of  angels;  in  both 
cases  the  service  is  irregular  and  wasteful.  Nobody  ever 

124 


THE    NEGRO   AT    WORK 

feels  sure  that  a  servant  will  come  the  next  morning.  Most 
of  the  well-to-do  families  in  the  South  feed  a  second  fam- 
ily out  of  the  baskets  taken  home  by  the  cook;  and  in 
thousands  of  instances  the  basket  goes  to  some  member 
of  a  third  family  favored  by  the  cook.  Hence  the  little 
pong  taken  down  from  a  Negro's  lips  by  a  friend  in  Mis- 
sissippi : 

"  I  doan'  has  to  wuk  so  ha'd, 
'Cause  I  got  a  gal  in  de  white  folks'  ya'd; 
And  ebry  ebnin'  at  half  past  eight 
I  comes  along  to  de  gyarden  gate; 
She  gibs  me  buttah  an'  sugah  an'  lard — 
I  doan'  has  to  wuk  so  ha'd!" 

Let  one  story  out  of  a  hundred  illustrate  this  trouble. 
A  newly  married  couple,  both  accustomed  to  handsome 
living,  set  up  their  own  establishment  in  a  Mississippi 
town,  in  a  new  house,  well  furnished  and  abounding  in 
heirlooms  of  mahogany  and  china ;  the  only  available  can- 
didate for  waitress  is  a  haughty  person  who  begins  by 
objecting  to  monthly  payments,  and  shortly  announces  to 
her  mistress :  "  I  ain't  sure  I  want  to  stay  here,  but  I  will 
give  you  a  week's  trial."  The  patient  and  good-natured 
lady  accepts  the  idea  of  a  week's  experience  on  both  sides, 
but  before  that  time  expires  the  girl  comes  rushing  up  in 
a  fury  to  announce  that  "  I'm  gwine  ter  leave  just  now, 
kase  you  don't  give  yo'  help  'nough  to  eat."  It  develops 
that  she  has  had  exactly  the  same  breakfast  as  the  white 
family,  except  that  the  particular  kind  of  bacon  of  which 
she  is  fond  has  run  short.  There  is  plenty  of  bacon  of 
another  brand,  but  that  will  not  satisfy  her;  she  will  not 
stay  "  where  people  don't  get  'nough  to  eat."  She  there- 
upon shakes  the  dust  of  the  place  off  her  feet  and  black- 

125 


THE   SOUTHERN   SOUTH 

lists  the  family  in  the  whole  place,  making  it  almost  im- 
possible for  them  to  find  another  servant;  and  probably 
some  other  white  mistress  within  a  week  takes  up  tliis 
hungry  person  as  being  the  best  that  she  can  do. 

Other  people  have  more  agreeable  tales  of  good-tem- 
pered and  humorous  servants;  and  the  negro  question 
would  be  half  solved  if  the  people  who  undertake  domes- 
tic service  and  accept  wages  would  show  reasonable  inter- 
est, cleanliness,  and  honesty;  and  a  million  of  the  race 
might  find  steady  employment  at  good  wages  in  the  South 
within  the  next  six  months,  and  another  million  in  the 
North,  if  they  would  only  do  faithfully  what  they  are 
capable  of  doing. 

There  is  little  hope  of  regeneration  by  that  means; 
the  difficulty  is  that  capable  Negroes  do  not  like  domestic 
service  and  seek  to  avoid  it.  The  average  Southerner 
sighs  for  the  good  old  household  slaves,  and  harks  back  to 
the  colored  mammy  in  the  kitchen  and  stately  butler  in 
the  drawing-room  in  slavery  times,  as  evidence  that  the 
Negroes  are  going  backward.  He  forgets  that  under 
slavery  the  highest  honorable  position  open  to  a  colored 
woman  was  to  be  the  owned  cook  in  a  wealthy  family; 
that  Booker  T.  Washington  and  DuBois  and  Kelly  Miller 
in  those  days  would  have  been  fortunate  if  raised  to  the 
lofty  pinnacle  of  the  trusted  butler  or  general  utility  man 
on  the  plantation.  The  house  servants  in  slavery  times 
were  chosen  for  their  superior  appearance  and  intelligence, 
and  were  likely  to  be  mulattoes;  the  children  and  grand- 
children of  such  people  may  now  be  owners  of  plantations, 
professional  men,  professors  in  colleges,  negro  bankers, 
and  heads  of  institutions;  while  the  domestic  servant 
commonly  now  comes  from  the  lowest  Negroes,  is  descended 
from  field  hands,  and  chosen  out  of  the  most  incompetent 

126 


THE    NEGRO   AT    WORK 

section  of  the  present  race.  The  problem  of  domestic  serv- 
ice is  chiefly  one  of  the  village  and  the  city,  in  which  only 
about  a  seventh  of  the  Negroes  live. 

Even  many  Southerners  have  very  hazy  ideas  about  the 
subdivisions  of  plantation  laborers ;  and  do  not  distinguish 
between  the  renters  and  croppers,  who  are  tenant  farmers 
in  their  way,  and  the  wage  hands  who  are  less  ambitious 
and  not  so  steady.  There  is  complaint  on  many  planta- 
tions that  negro  families  do  not  finish  their  contracts, 
though  the  main  outcry  is  against  the  day  laborer ;  yet  on 
many  of  the  large  plantations  there  is  little  complaint 
that  even  he  does  not  work  steadily,  and  little  trouble  in 
securing  from  him  a  fair  day's  work. 

Another  disturbance  of  the  easy  generalization  that  the 
Negro  will  not  work  is  due  to  the  variations  from  county 
to  county  and  from  place  to  place.  Much  more  depends 
than  the  outside  world  realizes  on  the  capacity  of  a  plan- 
tation manager  "to  handle  niggers";  and  the  testimony 
of  a  perfectly  straightforward  planter  who  tells  you  that 
he  knows  that  the  Negroes  as  a  race  run  away  from  work 
because  he  has  seen  it,  is  no  more  true  of  the  whole  peo- 
ple than  the  assurance  of  his  near  neighbor  that  he  knows 
the  blacks  are  all  industrious  because  they  work  steadily 
for  him.  Here  we  come  back  to  the  essential  truth  that 
it  is  unsafe  to  generalize  about  any  race.  There  are  thou- 
sands of  good  Negroes  in  the  towns  and  thousands  of  lazy 
rascals  on  the  plantations;  but  the  great  weight  of  tes- 
timony is  that  the  colored  man  works  tolerably  well  on  the 
land. 

Another  of  the  statements,  repeated  so  often  that  peo- 
ple believe  them  without  proof,  is  that  the  Southern  Ne- 
gro has  lost  his  skilled  trades.  Two  Southern  writers  say : 
"  Now,  most  of  the  bricklayers  are  white.  The  same  is 

127 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

true  with  respect  to  carpenter  work.  The  trade  of  the 
machinist  is  practically  in  the  hands  of  white  men."  "  They 
have  been  losing  ground  as  mechanics.  Before  the  war, 
on  every  plantation  there  were  first-class  carpenters,  black- 
smiths, wheelwrights,  etc.  Half  the  houses  in  Virginia 
were  built  by  Negro  carpenters.  Now  where  are  they  ?  " 
Nothing  could  better  illustrate  the  fact  that  Southerners 
who  reprehend  the  interference  of  the  North  in  questions 
which  it  does  not  understand,  are  themselves  myopic 
guides.  If  the  negro  trades  have  disappeared,  how  does 
it  come  about  that  in  Montgomery,  Ala.,  there  are  prac- 
tically no  other  laborers  of  that  type  ?  that  the  bricklayers, 
carpenters,  masons,  blacksmiths,  are  all  Negroes,  and  no 
white  boys  seem  to  be  learning  those  trades.  The  census 
of  1890  showed  in  Alabama  about  13,000  colored  men  who 
had  some  sort  of  skilled  employment,  many  of  them  in 
trades  which  did  not  exist  in  slavery  times,  such  as  iron- 
working,  steam  fitting,  and  service  on  railroads.  It  is 
true  that  they  are  shut  out  of  most  of  the  callings  in 
which  there  is  authority  over  others;  there  are  no  negro 
motormen  or  trolley  conductors,  no  negro  engineers, 
though  plenty  of  firemen;  no  negro  conductors,  though 
negro  brakemen  are  not  uncommon,  and  in  Meridian, 
Miss.,  the  trains  are  called  in  the  white  waiting  room 
by  a  buxom  negro  woman. 

In  some  Southern  cities  Whites,  very  often  Northern 
men,  have  absorbed  certain  trades  supposed  to  be  the  pe- 
culiar province  of  the  Negro:  barber  shops  with  white 
barbers  are  found;  the  magnificent  Piedmont  Hotel  in 
Atlanta  has  a  corps  of  white  servants ;  wherever  the  trades 
unions  get  into  the  South  they  are  likely  to  work  against 
the  Negro;  but  in  some  cases  he  has  unions  of  his  own; 
or  there  are  joint  unions  of  Whites  and  Negroes.  Con- 

128 


THE   NEGRO   AT    WORK 

sidering  the  great  opportunity  for  white  men  in  callings 
where  blacks  are  not  admitted  it  does  not  seem  likely  that 
they  will  ever  be  excluded  from  skilled  trades,  though  sub- 
ject to  more  competition  than  in  the  past. 

Another  employment  for  which  the  African  has  in 
many  ages  and  countries  been  found  suited  is  military 
service.  Even  in  slavery  times  military  companies  of  free 
Negroes  were  not  unknown,  and  some  of  them  actually 
went  to  the  front  for  the  Confederacy  in  the  first  weeks 
of  the  Civil  War.  Then  came  the  enlistment  of  nearly 
200,000  in  the  blue  uniform,  and  after  the  war  some 
thousands  of  men  remained  in  negro  regiments.  A  brief 
attempt  to  educate  colored  officers  in  West  Point  and  An- 
napolis was,  for  whatever  reason,  not  a  success;  and  the 
negro  troops  are  almost  wholly  under  the  command  of 
white  officers.  Since  Reconstruction  times  negro  militia 
companies  have  not  been  encouraged,  and  in  some  states 
have  been  wholly  disbanded.  The  difficulty  in  Brownsville, 
Texas,  in  1907,  has  tended  to  prevent  negro  enlistment 
in  the  army  and  navy.  In  the  Spanish  War  and  later 
in  the  Philippines  negro  regiments  gave  a  good  account 
of  themselves.  There  are  a  few  negro  policemen  in  the 
cities,  but  in  the  South  they  are  likely  to  disappear.  The 
white  man  resents  any  assertion  of  authority  over  him  by 
a  Negro,  and  in  general  considers  him  unfit  to  exercise 
control  over  people  of  his  own  race. 

Even  in  ante-bellum  times  there  were  occasional  ne- 
gro business  and  professional  men,  some  of  whom  had  the 
confidence  of  their  white  neighbors  and  made  little  for- 
tunes. Since  the  Civil  War  these  avenues  have  much 
widened.  The  16,000  or  17,000  ministers  are  still  to  a 
large  degree  uneducated  persons,  as  indeed  is  the  case  in 
many  white  churches.  Negro  physicians  are  numerous, 

129 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

educated  partly  in  Northern  institutions,  partly  in  medi- 
cal colleges  of  their  own,  partly  in  schools  officered  by 
white  professors,  as,  for  instance,  in  Raleigh,  N.  C.  Like 
the  lawyers  they  cannot  practice  without  the  certificate 
of  state  officers  not  very  friendly  to  them  or  easy  to  con- 
vince of  their  abilities;  and  the  cream  of  the  practice 
among  colored  people  goes  to  the  Whites.  In  business, 
negro  merchants,  manufacturers,  builders,  and  bankers 
have  become  very  numerous.  Recently  a  Negro  Bankers' 
Convention  was  held  in  the  South.  Most  of  the  trans- 
actions of  these  men  are  carried  on  with  their  own  people, 
though  they  often  find  customers  and  credit  with  Whites. 
So  far,  there  are  few  or  no  large  negro  capitalists,  but 
many  promising  groups  of  small  capital  have  been  brought 
together ;  and  at  the  Expositions  of  Charleston  and  James- 
town they  showed  creditable  exhibits  of  their  own  in- 
dustries. 

Two  entirely  new  professions  have  opened  up  since 
the  Civil  War.  The  first  is  that  of  journalist,  and  there  are 
many  negro  newspapers,  none  of  which  has  any  national 
circulation,  or  extended  influence.  The  other  is  teaching, 
which  has  opened  up  a  livelihood  to  thousands  of  young 
men  and  women.  Some  of  the  negro  colleges  are  wholly 
manned  by  members  of  the  race,  many  of  them  graduates 
of  Northern  instituting,  who  seem  to  make  use  of  the 
same  methods  and  appeal  to  the  same  aspirations  as  the 
faculties  of  white  colleges. 

Though  often  accused  by  his  white  neighbor  of  at- 
tempts to  unite  in  hostile  organizations,  the  Negroes  show 
little  disposition  to  rally  around  and  support  leaders  of 
their  own  race.  Booker  T.  Washington,  the  man  of  most  in- 
fluence among  them,  has  encountered  implacable  opposi- 
tion, and  efforts  have  even  been  made  by  hostile  members 

130 


THE    NEGRO   AT    WORK 

of  his  own  race  to  break  up  his  meetings  in  Boston.  In- 
asmuch as  the  Negroes  are  excluded  from  politics  in  the 
South,  it  is  hard  for  any  man  to  get  that  reputation  for 
bringing  things  about  which  is  necessary  in  order  to  at- 
tract a  strong  following.  As  DuBois  points  out  "  If  such 
men  are  to  be  effective  they  must  have  some  power, — they 
must  be  backed  by  the  best  public  opinion  of  these  com- 
munities, and  able  to  wield  for  their  objects  and  aims 
such  weapons  as  the  experience  of  the  world  has  taught  are 
indispensable  to  human  progress." 

One  of  the  strong  influences  is  the  conferences  gathered 
in  part  at  such  institutions  as  Hampton  and  Tuskegee, 
and  Atlanta  University,  in  part  called  in  other  places. 
A  considerable  number  of  Negroes  have  the  money  and 
the  inclination  to  attend  these  meetings,  where  they  learn 
to  know  each  other  and  to  express  their  common  wants. 


IS  THE   NEGRO   RISING? 

THAT  the  Negro  is  inferior  to  the  Whites  among 
whom  he  lives  is  a  cause  of  apprehension  to  the 
whole  land;  that  his  labor  is  in  steadiness  and  ef- 
ficiency much  below  that  of  his  intelligent  white  neighbors 
is  a  drawback  to  his  section.  Yet  neither  deficiencies  of 
character  nor  of  industry  really  settle  his  place  in  the 
community.  A  race  may  be  as  high  as  the  Greeks  and 
yet  go  to  nothingness ;  a  race  may  be  as  industrious  as  the 
Chinese,  and  have  little  to  show  for  it.  The  essential 
question  with  regard  to  the  Negro  is  simply:  Is  the  race 
in  America  moving  downward  or  upward?  No  matter 
if  it  be  low,  has  it  the  capacity  of  rising? 

To  answer  these  questions  requires  some  study  both 
of  present  and  past  conditions.  A  very  considerable  num- 
ber of  Southern  Whites  are  sure  that  physically  and  mor- 
ally the  Negro  is  both  low  and  declining;  and  some  go 
so  far  as  to  assert  that  every  Negro  is  physically  so  differ- 
ent from  the  white  man  that  he  ought  not  to  be  considered 
a  member  of  the  human  race.  The  argument  was  familiar 
in  slavery  times,  and  has  been  recently  set  forth  by  F.  L. 
Hoffman  in  his  "  Race  Traits  of  the  American  Negro  " ; 
from  chest  measurements,  weight,  lifting  strength,  and 
power  of  vision,  he  is  convinced  that  "  there  are  important 
differences  in  the  bodily  structure  of  the  two  races,  dif- 

132 


IS    THE    NEGRO    RISING? 

ferences  of  far-reaching  influence  on  the  duration  of  life 
and  the  social  and  economic  efficiency  of  the  colored 
man."  Professor  Smith,  of  Louisiana,  in  his  "  The  Color 
Line,  A  Brief  for  the  Unborn,"  goes  much  farther  in  an 
argument  intended  to  show  that  the  brain  capacity  of  the 
Negro,  the  coarseness  of  his  features,  the  darkness  of  his 
color,  the  abnormal  length  of  his  arm,  his  thick  cranium, 
woolly  hair  and  early  closing  of  the  cranial  sutures,  prove 
that  he  may  be  left  out  of  consideration  as  a  member 
of  a  civilized  community. 

The  tendency  of  scientific  investigators  during  the  last 
forty  years  has  been  to  minimize  the  distinctions  between 
races ;  and  the  argument  that  the  Negro  is  to  be  politically 
and  socially  disregarded  because  of  structural  peculiarities, 
though  the  stock  in  trade  of  the  proslavery  writers  two 
generations  ago,  now  seems  somewhat  forced.  To  the 
Northern  mind  there  is  a  kind  of  unreality  in  the  whole 
argument  of  physical  inferiority;  it  is  like  trying  to  prove 
by  anatomy,  physiology,  and  hygiene  that  the  Hungarian 
laborer  is  always  going  to  be  an  ignorant  and  degraded 
element  in  our  population. 

These  technical  arguments  throw  very  little  light  upon 
the  real  African  problem,  which  is  not,  what  does  the 
structure  of  the  Negro  indicate  that  he  must  be,  but  what 
is  he  really  and  what  does  he  perform?  If  the  Negro 
can  work  all  day  in  the  cotton  field,  save  his  wages,  buy 
land,  bring  up  his  children,  send  them  to  school,  pay 
his  debts,  and  maintain  a  decent  life,  no  cranial  sutures 
or  prognathism  will  prevent  his  being  looked  upon  as  a 
man;  and  the  whole  physical  argument,  much  of  which 
is  intended  to  affect  the  public  mind  against  amalgamation, 
cannot  do  away  with  the  plain  fact  that  the  white  and  the 
black  races  are  so  near  to  each  other  that  some  hundreds 

133 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

of  thousands  of  people  come  of  white  fathers  and  negro 
or  mulatto  mothers.  The  Negro  is  entitled  to  be  measured, 
not  by  brain  calipers,  nor  by  two-meter  rods,  but  by  what 
he  can  do  in  the  world. 

What  he  can  do  in  the  world  depends  upon  the  inner 
man  and  not  the  outer;  and  here  we  approach  one  of  the 
most  serious  problems  connected  with  the  race.  Has  the 
Negro  character?  Can  he  conceive  a  standard  and  adhere 
to  it?  Can  he  fix  his  mind  on  a  distant  good  and  for 
its  sake  give  up  present  indulgences  ?  Can  he  restrain  the 
primal  impulses  of  human  nature? 

That  the  Negroes  as  a  race  are  impure  and  unregu- 
lated is  the  judgment  of  most  white  observers  whether 
ill-wishers  or  fair-minded  men.  Thomas  Nelson  Page, 
for  instance,  declares  that  the  immorality  of  the  negro 
race  has  increased  since  slavery  times.  Thomas,  himself 
a  Negro,  asserts  that  the  sexual  impulse  "constitutes  the 
main  incitement  to  the  degeneracy  of  the  race,  and  is 
the  chief  hindrance  to  its  social  uplifting."  Kelsey,  a 
Northern  observer,  says :  "  Many  matings  are  consum- 
mated without  any  regular  marriage  ceremony  and  with 
little  reference  to  legal  requirements."  On  this  subject 
as  on  all  others  the  most  preposterous  exaggerations  are 
rife;  a  plantation  manager  will  tell  you  that  not  two  in 
a  hundred  couples  on  his  plantation  are  married;  a  stock 
statement,  a  thousand  times  repeated,  is  that  there  is  no 
such  thing  as  a  virtuous  negro  woman.  Yet  the  truth 
is  gruesome  enough;  there  are  plenty  of  plantations  where 
barely  half  the  families  are  married ;  bastard  children  are 
very  numerous;  and  this  condition  applies  not  only  in 
the  cities  and  towns  where  people  are  put  into  new  and 
trying  environments,  but  everywhere  among  the  Negroes 
upon  the  land.  It  is  the  most  discouraging  thing  about 

134 


IS   THE    NEGRO    RISING? 

the  race,  because  it  saps  the  foundation  of  civilization. 
Nor  is  it  an  explanation  to  say  that  under  slavery  family 
ties  were  disregarded.  The  race  has  now  had  forty  years 
of  freedom  and  undisturbed  religious  training,  such  as  it 
is.  Still  they  ought  to  show  decided  improvement  in 
morals  if  the  race  is  capable  of  living  on  a  high  moral 
plane. 

This  is  a  gloomy  and  delicate  subject,  but  cannot  be 
allowed  to  pass  without  a  few  positive  illustrations.  When 
Kelsey  suggested  to  a  Negro  that  he  might  go  back  to  the 
plantation  and  board  in  a  negro  family,  he  replied: 
"  Niggers  is  queer  folks,  boss.  'Pears  to  me  they  don' 
know  what  they  gwine  do.  Ef  I  go  out  and  live  in  a  man's 
house  like  as  not  I  run  away  wid  dat  man's  wife."  A  girl 
whose  mistress  was  trying  to  put  before  her  a  higher  stand- 
ard of  conduct  said :  "  It's  no  use  talking  to  us  colored 
girls  like  we  were  white.  A  colored  girl  that  keeps  pure 
ain't  liked  socially.  We  just  think  she  has  had  no 
chance."  A  negro  boy  twelve  years  old  has  been  known 
to  reel  off  two  hundred  different  obscene  rhymes  and  songs. 
Divorce  is  frequent,  particularly  the  easy  form  which 
consists  of  the  husband  throwing  his  wife  out  of  doors  and 
bringing  in  another  woman.  The  negro  preachers  are 
universally  believed  to  be  the  worst  of  their  kind,  and  very 
often  are.  If  the  things  that  are  regularly  told  by  white 
people  and  sometimes  admitted  by  colored  people  are  true, 
the  majority  of  the  Southern  Negroes,  rural  and  urban, 
are  in  a  horribly  low  state  both  physically  and  morally. 

The  more  credit  to  those  members  of  the  race  who  are 
pure  and  upright;  who  are  showing  that  it  is  a  libel  to 
brand  as  hopelessly  corrupt  ten  million  people,  including 
probably  two  million  mulattoes;  to  say  nothing  of  the 
numerous  examples  of  chaste  and  self-respecting  Negroes 

135 


of  both  sexes  in  the  Northern  states.  The  most  furious 
assailant  of  negro  character  will  usually  tell  you  of  one. 
or  two  Negroes  that  he  knows  to  be  perfectly  straightfor- 
ward; and  the  writer  can  bear  personal  testimony  to  the 
apparent  wholesomeness  of  family  life  in  negro  homes 
that  he  has  chanced  to  visit.  Here,  a  young  mother  in  her 
scrupulously  clean  log  house  hovering  over  her  little  chil- 
dren as  affectionately  as  though  she  and  they  were  white; 
there,  gathered  around  the  hearth  of  a  new  house  with 
good  furniture  and  pretty  pictures,  a  family  of  seven 
children,  neat,  clean,  attractive,  respectful,  intelligent,  and 
apparently  attached  to  father  and  mother.  Again,  a  fine 
specimen  of  the  thrifty  colored  man  who  boasts  that  he 
has  lived  forty-one  years  with  one  wife :  "  I  got  a  good 
wife,  she  take  keer  of  me."  Where  such  homes  are,  all 
is  not  vile.  It  is  a  favorite  Southern  delusion  that  educa- 
tion and  Christian  teaching  have  no  effect  on  the  animal 
propensities  of  Negroes;  there  are  thousands  of  examples 
to  the  contrary. 

It  would  do  no  good  to  anybody  to  minimize  the  ter- 
rible truth  that  the  Negroes  as  a  race  are  in  personal 
morality  far  below  the  Anglo-Saxons  as  a  race,  that  the 
heaviest  dead  weight  upon  them  is  their  own  passions ;  but 
it  would  be  equally  futile  to  blink  at  the  fact  that  the 
Whites  do  not  set  them  in  this  respect  a  convincing  exam- 
ple. Anglo-Saxons  the  world  over  are  not  unreasonably  vir- 
tuous ;  and  the  divorce  cases  of  Pittsburg  might  not  be  safe 
reading  for  impressionable  people  like  the  blacks.  If  the 
negro  race  is  depraved  it  cannot  but  have  a  demoralizing 
effect  on  the  white  race,  most  of  whom  have  colored  nurses ; 
and  the  male  half  of  whom  have  all  their  life  been  exposed 
to  a  particularly  facile  temptation.  Heaven  has  somehow 
shielded  the  white  woman  of  the  South  from  the  noxious 

136 


IS    THE    NEGRO    RISING? 

influences  of  a  servile  race;  in  slavery  times  and  now 
there  is  not  a  fairer  flower  that  hlooms  than  the  white 
Southern  girl;  although  it  is  a  delusion  that  she  is 
never  pursued  by  men  of  her  own  race.  No  visitor,  no 
clean  Southern  man,  knows  the  abysses  in  both  races  or 
can  fix  the  proportion  in  which  both  need  to  rise  if  the 
Southland  is  to  be  redeemed  from  its  most  fearful  danger. 
Great  numbers  of  the  Negroes  are  immoral,  and  great 
numbers  of  white  men  can  testify  to  their  immorality, 
for  the  building  up  of  character  is  a  long  and  weary  process 
in  both  races. 

So  far  as  the  future  of  the  Negro  is  concerned,  the 
real  problem  is  whether  he  can  suppress  his  bad  traits 
and  emphasize  his  higher  nature,  but  that  is  a  question 
with  regard  to  all  other  races.  The  blacks  are  ignorant, 
not  only  of  books,  but  of  the  world,  of  life,  of  the  expe- 
rience of  the  race.  They  are  untrustworthy,  but  at  the 
same  time  faithful;  as  one  of  their  own  number  says: 
"  They'll  loaf  before  your  face  and  work  behind  your  back 
with  good-natured  honesty.  They'll  steal  a  watermelon, 
and  hand  you  back  your  lost  purse  intact." 

In  any  case,  it  may  safely  be  affirmed  that  the  Negro 
is  not  retrograding.  On  the  Sea  Islands,  where  it  has 
been  reported  that  the  Negroes  had  sunk  to  savagery,  where 
on  one  small  island  a  white  face  had  not  been  seen  for 
ten  years,  there  is  undoubtedly  a  widespread  belief  in 
magic,  or  what  a  fluent  colored  preacher,  in  a  discourse 
apparently  intended  for  white  ears,  referred  to  as  "  Hin- 
dooism."  On  such  subjects  the  Negroes  are  reticent;  but 
no  evidence  of  paganism  is  visible  to  long-time  residents 
on  the  islands.  When  it  comes  to  fortune-telling  and 
charms,  and  a  fetich  that  will  insure  you  against  having 
your  mortgage  foreclosed,  about  the  same  thing  may  be 

137 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

found  among  otherwise  intelligent  people  in  any  Northern 
city.  Degradation  is  frequent;  and  marital  relations  are 
loose  on  the  islands,  though  no  more  so  than  on  the  plan- 
tations of  Mississippi,  or  among  the  Negroes  of  the  cities 
of  Georgia.  The  population  is  in  general  healthier  than 
on  the  mainland,  though  much  exposed  to  severe  malaria. 
Two  or  three  of  the  African  superstitions  do  survive;  one 
is  that  you  must  always  keep  a  door  open  during  the  day 
so  that  you  may  not  shut  the  bad  spirit  in  with  you ;  but 
at  night  doors  and  shutters  must  be  closed  to  keep  the 
spirit  out.  Another  superstition  is  the  "  Basket-name," 
which  is  the  plague  of  the  Northern  teachers,  who  are  a 
long  time  in  learning  that  Louisa's  basket  name  is  "  Chug," 
or  that  when  you  call  Ezra,  "  Mantchey "  will  come. 
Churches  of  various  denominations  are  kept  up,  and,  to- 
gether with  the  various  lodges,  furnish  the  principal  social 
life  of  the  people.  To  be  sure  they  often  have  African 
dances  at  their  religious  services;  but  these  are  very  like 
the  Shaker  dances,  which  can  hardly  be  called  pagan 
worship. 

The  error  as  to  the  progress  of  the  Negro  arises  both 
from  an  unfounded  notion  of  the  virtues  and  the  civiliza- 
tion of  the  Negroes  under  slavery,  and  an  equally  un- 
founded idea  that  the  average  conditions  of  the  Negro 
to-day  are  hopeless.  The  Negro  was  busier  in  slavery 
times  than  now  because  there  was  always  the  whip  in  the 
background,  but  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  his 
average  annual  product  was  as  great  as  that  of  the  present 
freeman.  Falsehood,  thriftlessness,  and  immorality  are 
the  charges  which  were  constantly  brought  against  the 
slaves,  both  by  outsiders  and  by  their  own  masters.  Judged 
by  the  standards  which  the  white  man  most  readily  applies 
to  himself — namely,  the  proportion  of  educated  and  pro- 

138 


IS   THE    NEGRO    RISING? 

gressive  men  and  women,  the  average  amount  of  property, 
the  interest  in  the  welfare  of  the  race — there  is  no  reason 
to  doubt  that  the  Negro  is  higher  up  than  he  was  half  a 
century  ago. 

How  far  does  the  desire  for  uplift  extend,  and  how  far 
is  it  effective?  The  negro  population  shows  a  distinct 
interest  in  the  future  of  the  race.  The  field  hand  who  has 
the  ambition  to  save  and  improve,  to  buy  his  own  land, 
feels  that  he  is  benefiting  not  only  himself,  but  giving 
an  object  lesson  of  the  power  of  his  race.  Some  of  the 
leaders  have  personal  ends  to  gain,  but  they  all  expect  to 
gain  them  by  showing  a  power  to  improve  the  conditions 
of  their  fellows.  Yet  even  though  the  Negro  may  be  work- 
ing steadily,  he  may  also  be  gaining  nothing  from  gen- 
eration to  generation;  if  he  gets  better  wages,  he  may  be 
squandering  them;  a  small  part  of  the  race  might  con- 
ceivably be  going  forward,  while  a  large  part  was  drop- 
ping back. 

A  piece  of  testimony  on  the  highest  phases  of  negro 
character  which  is  too  often  forgotten  in  the  South  is 
that  on  the  occasion  when  the  race  had  the  best  opportu- 
nity to  show  black-heartedness  it  gave  the  world  a  noble 
example  of  patience,  forbearance,  and  forgiveness.  As  that 
great  Southerner,  Grady,  wrote :  "  History  has  no  parallel 
to  the  faith  kept  by  the  negro  in  the  South  during  the 
war.  Often  five  hundred  negroes  to  a  single  white  man, 
and  yet  through  these  dusky  throngs  the  women  and  chil- 
dren walked  in  safety,  and  the  unprotected  homes  rested  in 
peace.  Unmarshalled,  the  black  battalions  moved  patiently 
to  the  fields  in  the  morning  to  feed  the  armies  their  idle- 
ness would  have  starved,  and  at  night  gathered  anxiously 
at  the  big  house  to  *  hear  the  news  from  marster,'  though 
conscious  that  his  victory  made  their  chains  enduring. 
10  139 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

Everywhere  humble  and  kindly.  The  body  guard  of  the 
helpless.  The  rough  companion  of  the  little  ones.  The 
observant  friend.  The  silent  sentry  in  his  lowly  cabin. 
The  shrewd  counsellor.  And  when  the  dead  came  home, 
a  mourner  at  the  open  grave.  A  thousand  torches  would 
have  disbanded  every  Southern  army,  but  not  one  was 
lighted."  That  achievement  was  a  vast  advance  above  the 
savagery  of  the  native  African;  and  why  should  the 
capacity  for  improvement  stop  there? 

Keeping  in  mind  the  fact  that  with  all  his  patience 
the  slave  in  the  best  days  of  slavery  was  still- a  low  and 
vicious  type  in  whom  his  slavehood  strengthened  native 
propensities  to  lying,  theft,  and  lust,  it  is  undeniable  that 
the  greater  part  of  the  race  has  made  great  advances ;  even 
John  Temple  Graves,  a  harmful  enemy  of  the  Negro,  ad- 
mits that  "The  leaders  of  no  race  in  history  have  ever 
shown  greater  wisdom,  good  temper  and  conservative  dis- 
cretion than  distinguishes  the  two  or  three  men  who  stand 
at  the  head  of  the  negro  race  in  America  to-day."  Under 
slavery  no  such  success  or  influence  was  possible;  there 
could  be  no  negro  orators,  or  reformers,  or  leaders  in  the 
South. 

An  invariable  answer  to  the  plea  that  the  character 
of  the  negro  leaders  is  a  proof  of  the  capacity  for  uplift 
is  that  they  are  substantially  white  men.  At  the  same  mo- 
ment the  critics  deny  to  those  substantially  white  men  the 
privileges  of  actual  white  men.  But  may  not  "substan- 
tially white  men"  have  an  uplifting  influence  such  as 
indubitably  white  men  had  in  earlier  times?  Most  can- 
did white  observers,  however  hostile  to  the  race,  admit 
that  somewhere  from  a  tenth  to  a  fourth  of  all  the  Ne- 
groes are  doing  well  and  moving  upward ;  and  this  applies 
to  the  Negro  on  the  land  as  well  as  in  cities.  In  many 

140 


IS   THE   NEGRO   RISING? 

scattered  areas  in  the  South,  groups  of  plantation  Negroes 
have  bought  land  and  are  saving  money.  Here  are  a  few 
examples  taken  from  the  writer's  notebook : 

At  Calhoun,  Ala.,  may  be  found  nearly  a  hundred  Ne- 
groes who  have  bought  or  are  buying  their  own  farms, 
and  have  made  $60,000  of  savings  to  do  it.  A  negro 
woman  on  one  of  those  farms  said  of  her  new  house: 
"  We  don't  need  no  rider  (overseer)  now,  dis  house  is  our 
rider.  It  will  send  us  into  the  field,  it  will  make  us  work, 
and  it  will  make  us  plan.  We's  got  to  plan.  When  Ise 
out  in  the  pit  I  has  to  stop  to  look  up  at  dis  house,  and 
den  Ise  so  pleased  I  don't  know  how  I  am  working." 
Near  Nixburg,  Ala.,  is  another  settlement  started  by  a 
Negro,  Rev.  John  Leonard,  soon  after  the  war,  which  is 
called  thereabouts  "  Niggerdom,"  because  the  blacks  have 
acquired  the  best  tract  of  land  in  the  region,  have  put  up 
the  best  schoolhouse  in  the  county,  and  as  a  neighbor  said 
of  them :  "  They,  have  got  to  the  place  now  where  they're 
no  more  service  to  the  Whites.  They  want  to  work  for 
themselves."  At  Kowaliga,  Ala.,  is  the  Benson  settlement, 
where  a  Negro  has  bought  his  former  master's  plantation, 
largely  extended  it,  has  built  a  dam  and  mill,  owns  three 
thousand  acres  of  land  with  many  tenants,  and  is  one  of 
the  few  large  planters  of  that  section  who  combines  cattle 
raising  with  cotton.  He  gave  land  and  assistance  to  a  good 
school  with  commodious  buildings,  carried  on  entirely  by 
Xegroes  (including  Tuskegee  graduates) ;  is  building 
what  is  probably  the  best  planter's  house  in  the  county, 
and  has  plenty  of  outside  investment?.  At  Mound  Bayou, 
Miss.,  is  another  purely  negro  settlement,  with  a  popula- 
tion of  about  two  thousand,  among  whom  not  a  single 
white  man  lives.  Under  the  guidance  of  two  brothers 
named  Montgomery,  they  bought  their  land  direct  from  the 

141 


THE    SOUTHERN   SOUTH 

railroad  company,  claim  to  own  130,000  acres,  and  have 
paid  for  considerable  parts  of  it;  maintain  their  own 
stores,  carry  on  a  little  bank,  and  elect  a  negro  munici- 
pal government.  The  results  show  as  much  capacity  for 
managing  their  own  affairs  as  the  neighboring  white 
towns. 

There  are  two  or  three  settlements  of  the  same  kind 
in  the  South,  on  a  smaller  scale,  as  at  Goldsboro,  Fla., 
and  one  in  Alabama.  Different  in  type,  but  a  proof  of 
prosperity,  are  the  negro  settlements  on  the  Sea  Islands; 
here  is  no  personal  leader  like  Leonard,  or  Benson,  or 
Montgomery ;  but  on  several  of  the  islands  is  a  large  group 
of  colored  landowners  who  have  been  there  ever  since  the 
Civil  "War,  and  whose  houses  are  much  superior  to  the 
usual  negro  cabins.  While  not  progressive,  they  hold  on 
to  their  land  with  great  tenacity,  and  are  not  running 
into  debt. 

These  specific  examples  prove  beyond  question  that 
Africans  can  advance.  Every  one  of  the  settlements 
above  mentioned  is  planted  in  an  unpromising  region, 
among  Negroes  presumably  of  a  lower  type  than  the 
average.  Lowndes  County,  in  which  Calhoun  is  situated, 
is  one  of  the  most  backward  in  the  South ;  the  Sea  Islands 
have  the  densest  negro  population  to  be  found  anywhere. 
Similar  instances,  on  a  smaller  scale  may  be  found  in 
every  state  and  almost  every  county  of  the  South.  How- 
ever backward  the  people,  you  are  everywhere  told  that 
a  few  save  money,  buy  land,  and  try  to  give  their  children 
better  conditions.  Nor  is  it  the  mulattoes  only  who  show 
this  disposition  to  get  on  in  the  world;  the  pure  Negroes 
sometimes  are  the  most  industrious  and  sensible  of  their 
race. 

Houses  and  lands  are  not  the  only  measure  of  uplift; 
142 


IS    THE    NEGKO    KISING? 

and  the  numerous  Negroes  who,  according  to  the  impres- 
sion of  white  men  not  likely  to  exaggerate,  are  really 
thrifty,  might  be  unable  to  raise  the  average  of  their  race ; 
but  it  seems  clear  that  the  Negro  is  nowhere  reverting 
to  barbarism ;  that  a  considerable  part  of  the  race,  certainly 
one  fourth  to  one  fifth,  is  doing  about  as  well  as  the  low- 
est million  or  two  of  the  Southern  Whites ;  though  perhaps 
a  fifth  (of  whom  a  great  part  are  to  be  found  in  towns 
and  cities)  are  distinctly  doing  ill;  that  the  Negroes  on 
the  land,  though  on  the  average  low,  ignorant,  and  de- 
graded, are  working  well,  making  cotton,  and  helping  to 
enrich  the  South.  For,  as  one  of  themselves  puts  it :  "  The 
native  ambition  and  aspiration  of  men,  even  though  they 
be  black,  backward,  and  ungraceful,  must  not  lightly  be 
dealt  with."  The  real  negro  problem  is  the  question  of 
the  character  and  the  future  of  the  laborer. 

But  deep  in  the  breast  of  the  Average  Man 

The  passions  of  ages  are  swirled, 
And  the  loves  and  the  hates  of  the  Average  Man 

Are  old  as  the  heart  of  the  world — 
For  the  thought  of  the  Race,  as  we  live  and  we  die, 
Is  in  keeping  the  Man  and  the  Average  high. 

The  only  real  measure  of  uplift  is  character,  but  char- 
acter cannot  be  reduced  to  statistical  tables.  The  accu- 
mulation of  property,  especially  by  a  race  nearly  pauper- 
ized when  it  first  acquired  the  right  to  hold  property,  can 
be  traced  and  throws  much  light  on  the  important  ques- 
tion whether  the  Negroes  are  rising  or  falling.  It  is  dif- 
ficult to  separate  out  the  contribution  which  the  Negro 
makes  to  the  wealth  of  the  South,  and  to  estimate  his  own 
?avings,  because  the  only  available  census  figures  on  this 

143 


THE    SOUTHERN   SOUTH 

subject  deal  with  the  three  classes  of  owners,  renters,  and 
croppers  of  land;  and  do  not,  and  probably  cannot,  make 
a  separate  account  of  negro  wage  hands  on  the  planta- 
tions, and  workmen  and  jobbers  of  every  description.  As 
nearly  as  can  be  judged,  more  than  half  the  cotton  comes 
off  plantations  tilled  by  negro  laborers,  or  tenants;  and 
for  the  rest,  a  notable  portion  is  raised  by  independent 
negro  farmers,  chiefly  on  the  hills — some  on  the  lowlands. 
The  wage  hands  and  the  town  Negroes  have,  in  general, 
little  to  show  for  their  work  at  the  end  of  the  year.  They 
receive  or  are  credited  with  wages,  live  on  them,  and 
they  are  gone.  Negroes  are  extravagant,  tempted  by  ped- 
dlers and  instalment-goods  men,  and  fond  of  spending  for 
candy,  tobacco,  and  liquor.  There  are  few  savings  banks 
in  the  South,  and  the  failure  of  the  Freedman's  Bank  in 
Reconstruction  times  was  a  terrible  blow  to  the  long 
process  of  building  up  habits  of  thrift.  It  seems  to  be 
the  conviction  of  the  best  friends  of  the  Negro  in  the 
South  that  the  great  majority  of  the  day  laborers  have 
made  little  or  no  advance  in  habits  of  saving  during  the 
last  forty  years,  although  most  of  them  have  more  to  show 
in  the  way  of  clothing  and  furniture  than  their  fathers 
had. 

This  is  a  great  misfortune  to  the  race,  because,  as 
Booker  Washington  never  wearies  of  pointing  out,  now  is 
the  golden  time  for  the  Negro  to  acquire  land.  After  the 
war,  good  farm  land  could  be  bought  up  at  from  $1  to 
$5  an  acre;  and  to-day  a  family  with  $500  in  cash,  and 
saving  habits,  can,  in  most  parts  of  the  South,  pick  up 
an  out-of-the-way  corner  of  land,  with  a  poor  house  on 
it,  and  begin  the  kind  of  struggle  to  support  the  family 
and  pay  for  improvements  which  has  been  the  practice 
of  the  Northwest.  It  is  true  that  good  land  has  now 

144 


IS    THE    NEGRO    RISING? 

become  expensive;  there  are  under-drained  Delta  lands 
which  are  held  at  $50  to  $100  an  acre,  and  although  plant- 
ers grumble  at  the  trouble  and  loss  of  making  cotton  with 
shiftless  hands,  not  one  in  a  hundred  wants  to  break  up 
his  plantation  and  sell  it  out  to  the  Negroes.  The  suc- 
cessful communities  of  negro  farmers  who  have  acquired 
land  during  the  last  ten  years  have,  with  half  a  dozen 
exceptions,  been  organized  by  Northern  capitalists,  or 
philanthropists  who  have  bought  estates  in  order  to  sell 
them  out.  The  reason  for  this  reluctance  of  the  planter 
is  very  simple:  his  business  is  to  raise  cotton  on  a  large 
scale;  if  he  sells  out  even  at  a  good  figure,  he  loses  his 
occupation;  and  the  South,  as  a  community,  has  not  yet 
seized  the  great  principle  that  the  prosperity  of  everybody 
is  enhanced  by  an  increase  in  the  productive  and  purchas- 
ing power  of  the  laborer. 

No  figures  can  be  found  for  the  city  real  estate  holdings 
of  Negroes,  but  in  1900  there  were  188,000  so-called  farms 
owned  by  Negroes,  subject,  of  course,  like  white  property, 
to  mortgages  for  part  of  the  purchase  money,  or  for  debts 
afterward  incurred.  In  addition,  560,000  negro  families 
were  working  plots  of  land,  as  croppers  and  renters,  and 
received  either  a  share  or  the  whole  of  the.  crop  that  they 
made.  These  people  altogether  were  working  23,000,000 
acres,  an  average  of  about  30  acres  to  a  family;  and  pro- 
duced $256,000,000  worth  of  products.  These  750,000 
"  farmers "  represent  something  over  3,000,000  individu- 
als, which  figures  to  an  annual  output  of  $80  per  head ; 
and  it  is  difficult  to  see  how  that  value  could  possibly  be 
produced  if  the  Negroes  were  not  there.  The  families 
of  the  day  laborers  count  up  to  at  least  3,000,000  more; 
and  their  product  was  probably  somewhere  near  as  largo 
as  that  of  the  renters  and  croppers,  although  the  share 

115 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

of  the  planter  is  rather  greater.  It  would  seem  reasonable 
to  assert  that  $500,000,000  of  the  $1,200,000,000  of  farm 
products  in  the  South  was  raised  by  negro  labor ;  and  that 
by  their  work  in  the  cities  and  towns  they  probably  add 
another  $200,000,000  to  the  annual  product. 

It  is  not,  however,  certain  that  the  Negroes  have  ac- 
cumulated in  their  own  hands  so  much  as  the  value  of  one 
year's  output.  A.  H.  Stone,  a  practical  planter,  says  that, 
on  his  plantation,  negro  property  was  irregularly  sub- 
divided ;  his  renters  had  property  accumulated  to  an  aver- 
age of  $400  a  family,  while  the  share  hands  did  not  aver- 
age $50  a  family.  That  is,  the  greater  part  of  the 
negro  property  is  owned  by  the  smaller  part  of  the 
population.  That  is  not  peculiar  to  Negroes;  in  New 
York  City  nearly  the  whole  property  is  said  to  be  owned 
by  20,000  people;  and  in  Galveston  most  of  the  valuable 
real  estate  is  said  to  be  in  the  hands  of,  or  controlled  by, 
a  score  of  individuals.  In  the  cities  and  towns,  many 
prosperous  Negroes  are  rent  payers,  and  own  no  real  estate, 
but  there  may  be  50,000  owners  besides  the  190,000  farm 
owners.  In  Kentucky  half  the  Negroes  who  are  working 
land  independently  own  their  farms.  Even  in  Mississippi 
the  owners  and  renters  together  are  more  than  the  share 
hands. 

Since  no  Negro  can  successfully  rent  unless  he  owns 
mules  and  farm  tools,  and  the  renters  are  consider- 
ably more  numerous  than  the  owners,  we  may  add  250,- 
000  more  families  on  the  land  who  have  accumulated 
something.  That  makes  550,000  families,  or  between  a 
third  and  a  fourth  of  the  Southern  Negroes,  who  are  get- 
ting ahead.  If  the  550,000  families  averaged  $900  each 
of  land  and  personal  property  they  would  hold  $500,000,- 
000 ;  $900  is,  however,  a  high  figure,  and  it  may  be  roughly 

146 


IS   THE    NEGRO    RISING? 

estimated  that  negro  land  owners  and  renters  had  accumu- 
lated in  1900  not  more  than  $300,000,000  or  $400,000,- 
000  worth  of  property.  The  rest  of  the  Southern  Negroes 
are  about  7,000,000  in  number;  at  the  low  average  of  $15 
a  head  of  accumulations  they  would  count  up  nearly  $150,- 
000,000  more.  A  fair  estimate  of  negro  wealth  in  the 
South,  therefore,  would  be  something  above  $500,000,000, 
and  constantly  rising. 

This  estimated  proportion  is  confirmed  by  investiga- 
tions into  taxes  paid  by  Negroes.  In  1902  the  2,100,- 
000  Negroes  in  the  four  states  of  Virginia,  North 
Carolina,  Georgia,  and  Arkansas  were  assessed  for  taxes 
on  $54,000,000.  At  the  same  proportion  throughout  the 
South,  their  assessment  would  have  been  about  $170,000,- 
000,  which  by  this  time  has  probably  increased  to  over 
$200,000,000;  and  $200,000,000  is  a  fortieth  of  the  pres- 
ent total  assessment.  The  sum  is  great,  but  the  propor- 
tion to  the  wealth  of  the  South  is  small.  At  best  it 
can  be  said  that  the  Negroes,  who  are  a  third  of  the  popu- 
lation, own  a  fortieth  of  the  property  in  the  South;  and 
that  one  fourth  of  the  Negroes  own  four  fifths  of  all 
the  negro  property.  The  taxes  do  not  tell  the  whole  story, 
and  there  are  probably  rich  Northern  cities  in  which  the 
poorest  third  of  the  population  does  not  directly  pay  more 
than  a  fortieth  of  the  taxes.  If  a  race  is  to  be  held  up 
as  worthless  because  it  is  not  on  the  tax  books,  what  will 
become  of  some  of  the  most  lively  members  of  the  Boston 
City  Council  and  New  York  Board  of  Aldermen?  Every- 
body knows  that  in  every  community  the  poorest  people 
pay  the  largest  proportionate  taxes  through  their  rent,  and 
through  the  increased  cost  of  living  which  is  pushed  down 
upon  them  by  landlords  and  storekeepers.  If  the  colored 
people  were  all  to  move  out  of  their  tenements  and  farms 

147 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

and  to  go  on  general  strike  and  earn  nothing  with  which 
to  buy  their  supplies,  the  taxpayers  of  record  would  very 
quickly  find  out  who  paid  a  part  of  their  taxes  for  them. 
Nevertheless,  whatever  excuses  are  made  for  him,  it  is 
undeniable  that  the  Negro  has  no  such  spirit  of  acquisi- 
tion, no  such  willingness  to  sacrifice  present  delight  for 
future  good,  as  the  Northern  immigrant,  or  even  the 
Southern  Poor  White. 


CHAPTEE   XII 

RACE  ASSOCIATION 

IN  the  preceding  chapters  the  effort  has  been  made  to 
analyze  and  describe  the  white  race  and  the  negro  race, 
each  as  though  it  lived  by  itself,  and  could  work  out 
its  own  destiny  without  reference  to  the  other.  The  white 
race  is  faced  with  the  necessity  of  elevating  its  lower 
fourth;  the  negro  race  should  be  equally  absorbed  in 
advancing  its  lower  three  fourths.  In  both  races  there  is 
progress  and  there  is  hope;  if  either  one  were  living  by 
itself  it  might  be  predicted  that  in  a  generation  or  two 
the  problems  would  cease  to  be  specially  Southern  and 
would  come  down  to  those  which  besiege  all  civilized  com- 
munities. But  neither  race  lives  alone,  neither  can  live 
alone.  The  commercial  prosperity  of  the  Whites  largely 
depends  on  negro  labor;  high  standards  for  the  negro 
race  depend  on  white  aid  and  white  example;  neither 
race  is  free,  neither  race  is  independent.  They  are  the  posi- 
tive and  negative  poles  of  a  dynamo,  and  terrific  is  the 
spark  that  sometimes  leaps  from  one  to  the  other. 

In  one  sense,  the  Southern  Whites  are  the  South,  in- 
asmuch as  they  have  complete  control  of  the  state  and 
local  governments,  of  the  military,  of  public  education,  of 
business  on  a  large  scale,  and  of  society;  but  the  Negroes 
are  one  third  of  the  population,  furnish  much  more  than 
half  the  laborers  for  hire,  have  schools,  property,  and 

119 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

aspirations;  hence  whatever  term  is  used,  "  Southern  Prob- 
lem/' "  Race  Problem,"  or  "  Negro  Problem,"  it  refers  to 
the  antagonism  between  those  two  races.  How  keen  is 
the  Southern  consciousness  of  this  peculiar  condition  may 
be  learned  from  some  of  the  Southern  critics : 

Thomas  Nelson  Page  thus  states  it :  "A  race  with  an 
historic  and  a  glorious  past,  in  a  high  state  of  civilization, 
stands  confronted  by  a  race  of  their  former  slaves,  in- 
vested with  every  civil  and  political  right  which  they  them- 
selves possess,  and  supported  by  an  outside  public  senti- 
ment, which  if  not  inimical  to  the  dominant  race  is  at  least 
unsympathetic.  The  two  races  .  .  .  are  suspicious  of 
each  other;  their  interests  are  in  some  essential  particu- 
lars conflicting,  and  in  others  may  easily  be  made  so ;  ... 
the  former  dominant  race  is  unalterably  assertive  of  the 
imperative  necessity  that  it  shall  govern  the  inferior  race 
and  not  be  governed  by  it."  Less  drastic  is  the  statement 
of  Judge  William  H.  Thomas:  "The  white  man  and  the 
negro  together  make  up  the  citizenship  of  our  Southern 
country,  and  any  effort  to  deal  with  either  ignoring  the 
other  will  dimmish  the  chances  of  ultimate  success.  That 
religion  and  sentiment,  the  fixed  ideals  and  prejudices,  if 
you  please,  of  the  South  are  substantial  facts  that  cannot 
be  ignored  and  must  always  be  reckoned  with."  Murphy 
speaks  of  the  "  problem  presented  by  the  undeveloped  forces 
of  the  stronger  race.  These  must  largely  constitute  the  de- 
termining factor,  even  in  the  problem  presented  by  the 
negro;  for  the  negro  question  is  not  primarily  a  question 
of  the  negro  among  negroes,  but  a  question  of  the  negro 
surrounded  by  another  and  a  stronger  people." 

To  all  these  attempts  to  state  the  case  the  Northerner 
is  tempted  to  reply  that  the  South  has  no  monopoly  of  race 
problems;  that  he  too  has  prejudices  and  repulsions  and 

150 


RACE    ASSOCIATION 

race  jealousies  resembling  those  of  the  South;  and  that 
since  he  sees  them  melting  away  around  him,  those  of  his 
Southern  brethren  will  also  disappear  of  themselves.  That 
is  all  true,  yet  much  less  than  all  the  truth.  In  the  South 
every  white  man  is  determined  that  there  shall  be  two  races 
forever.  Nobody  ever  stated  the  Southern  point  of  view 
on  this  subject  better  than  the  late  Henry  Grady :  "  This 
problem  is  to  carry  on  within  her  body  politic  two  sepa- 
rate races,  equal  in  civil  and  political  rights,  and  nearly 
equal  in  numbers.  She  must  carry  these  races  in  peace; 
for  discord  means  ruin.  She  must  carry  them  separately ; 
for  assimilation  means  debasement.  She  must  carry  them 
in  equal  justice ;  for  to  this  she  is  pledged  in  honor  and  in 
gratitude.  She  must  carry  them  even  unto  the  end;  for 
in  human  probability  she  will  never  be  quit  of  either." 

"  The  South  "  in  Grady's  mouth  really  means  the  white 
South,  for  it  is  not  in  the  purpose  of  any  Southern 
man  or  woman  of  influence  to  permit  the  Negro  to  take 
part  in  deciding  race  issues.  Furthermore,  to  the  settle- 
ment of  these  difficult  problems  the  South  along  with  a 
genuine  humanity,  a  desire  to  act  in  all  things  within 
justice  and  Christianity,  brings  habits  of  mind  which  have 
been  discussed  in  an  earlier  chapter,  and  which  make  espe- 
cially difficult  moderate  public  statements  on  the  race 
question.  As  in  slavery  times  the  simple  assertion  that 
there  is  a  race  question  seems  to  some  people  an  offensive 
attempt  to  bring  ruin  on  the  South :  there  is  still  something 
of  the  feeling  candidly  set  forth  by  the  old  war-time 
Southern  school  geography :  "  The  Yankees  are  an  intelli- 
gent people  upon  all  subjects  except  slavery.  On  that 
question  they  are  mad." 

Especially  delicate  and  hazardous  is  any  investigation 
of  the  most  intimate  race  relation  which  in  the  nature  of 

151 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

things  is  better  understood  in  the  South  than  in  the  North. 
The  sexual  relation  between  Whites  and  Negroes  is  in  such 
contradiction  to  much  of  the  indictment  against  the  negro 
race,  and  is  so  abhorrent  even  to  that  section  of  the  white 
race  that  practices  it,  that  there  is  no  easy  or  pleasant 
way  of  alluding  to  it.  Actual  race  mixture  is  proven  by 
the  presence  in  the  South  of  two  million  mulattoes;  it  is 
no  new  thing,  for  it  has  been  going  on  steadily  ever  since 
the  African  appeared  in  the  United  States,  though  there 
are  people  who  insist  that  there  was  little  or  no  amalga- 
mation until  Northern  soldiers  came  down  during  the  war 
and  remained  in  garrison  during  Eeconstruction.  Every 
intelligent  traveler  in  the  ante-bellum  period,  every  can- 
did observer,  is  a  witness  to  the  contrary.  Since  the  earli- 
est settlements  there  have  continuously  been,  and  still  exist, 
two  different  forms  of  illicit  relations  between  the  races — 
concubinage  and  general  irregularity.  Whence  came  the 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  mulattoes  in  slavery  days?  Of 
course  the  child  of  a  mulatto  will  be  normally  light,  and 
of  the  two  million  mulattoes  now  in  the  country,  very 
likely  three  fourths  are  the  children  of  mulattoes.  But 
what  are  the  other  five  hundred  thousand  ?  To  that  fate- 
ful question  a  reply  can  be  made  only  on  the  testimony 
of  Southern  Whites  now  living  down  there,  and  not  likely 
to  paint  the  picture  blacker  than  it  is.  Here  are  some 
striking  instances  of  negro  concubinage;  and  the  judg- 
ment of  competent  men  is  that  hundreds  of  like  incidents 
could  be  collected: 

CASE  I. — A  white  business  man  in  a  small  city  of  State 
A  has  lived  twenty  years  with  a  mulatto  woman.  They  have 
eight  children,  two  of  whom  are  successful  business  men, 
one  of  them  a  banker.  The  white  man  says  that  the 
woman  has  always  been  faithful  to  him,  and  though  under 

153 


RACE    ASSOCIATION 

the  laws  of  the  state  he  cannot  marry  her,  he  looks  upon 
her  as  his  wife  and  does  what  he  can  for  the  children. 

CASE  II. — A  judge  of  State  B  has  recently  sentenced 
two .  different  white  men  for  cohabitation,  though  many 
Whites  remonstrated  and  told  him  that  there  was  no  use 
in  singling  out  for  punishment  a  few  cases  among  so  many. 

CASE  III. — In  State  C  a  retiring  judge  suggests  that 
cohabitation  be  made  a  hanging  offense  for  the  White,  as 
the  only  way  of  stopping  it. 

CASE  IV. — In  State  D  one  of  the  leading  citizens  of 
a  town  is  known  by  all  his  friends  to  be  living  with  a  black 
mistress. 

As  to  irregular  relations,  in  one  state  a  judge  renowned 
for  his  uprightness  proposes  that  a  blacklist  be  kept  and 
published  containing  the  names  of  men  known  by  their 
neighbors  to  visit  negro  women.  A  recent  governor  of 
Georgia  says  that  "Bad  white  men  are  destroying  the 
homes  of  Negroes  and  becoming  the  fathers  of  a  mon- 
grel people  whom  nobody  will  own."  A  newspaper  editor 
says  that  he  knows  Negroes  of  property  and  character  who 
want  to  move  out  of  the  South  so  as  to  get  their  daughters 
away  from  danger.  There  is  no  Southern  city  in  which 
there  are  not  negro  places  of  the  worst  resort  frequented 
by  white  men.  Heads  of  negro  schools  report  that  the 
girls  are  constantly  subject  to  solicitation  by  the  clerks 
of  stores  where  they  go  to  buy  goods.  The  presumption 
in  the  mind  of  an  average  respectable  Southern  man  when 
he  sees  a  light-colored  child  is  that  some  white  man  in 
the  neighborhood  is  responsible. 

Whether  the  evil  is  decreasing  is  a  question  on  which 
Southerners  are  divided.  The  number  of  white  prostitutes 
has  much  increased  since  slavery  days,  when  there  were 
very  few  of  them;  and  the  general  improvement  of  the 

153 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

community,  the  spread  of  religious  and  secular  instruc- 
tion, ought  to  have  an  effect.  But  the  real  difficulty  is 
that,  although  it  is  thought  disgraceful  for  a  white  man 
to  live  with  a  colored  mistress,  it  does  not  seem  to  de- 
stroy his  practice  of  a  profession,  or  his  career  as  a  busi- 
ness man.  There  seems  to  be  lack  of  efficient  public 
sentiment. 

If  these  statements  of  fact  are  true,  and  every  one  of 
them  goes  back  to  a  responsible  Southern  source,  there  is 
something  in  the  white  race  which  in  kind,  if  not  in  degree, 
corresponds  to  the  negro  immorality  which  is  the  most 
serious  defect  of  his  character.  It  is  not  an  answer  to  say 
that  the  cities  and  even  some  of  the  open  country  in  the 
North  are  honeycombed  with  sexual  corruption.  That 
is  true,  and  some  Southerner  might  do  a  service  by  reveal- 
ing the  real  condition  of  a  part  of  Northern  society.  Per- 
haps to  live  with  a  colored  mistress  to  the  end  of  one's 
life  is,  from  a  moral  standpoint,  less  profligate  than  for  a 
Pittsburg  business  man  of  wealth  and  responsibility  to 
drive  his  good  and  faithful  wife  out  of  the  house  because 
she  is  almost  as  old  as  he  is,  and  marry  a  pretty  young 
actress.  The  mere  ceremony  of  marriage  no  more  oblit- 
erates the  offense  than  would  in  the  minds  of  the  South- 
erner the  marriage  of  the  white  man  with  his  concubine; 
and  everybody  who  associates  with  such  a  man  thereby  con- 
dones the  offense. 

The  point  is,  however,  not  only  that  miscegenation  in 
the  South  is  evil,  but  that  it  is  the  most  glaring  contra- 
diction of  the  supposed  infallible  principles  of  race  separa- 
tion and  social  inequality.  There  are  two  million  deplor- 
able reasons  in  the  South  for  believing  that  there  is  no 
divinely  implanted  race  instinct  against  miscegenation; 
that  while  a  Southern  author  is  writing  that  "  the  idea  of 

154 


RACE   ASSOCIATION 

the  race  is  far  more  sacred  than  that  of  the  family.  It  is, 
in  fact,  the  most  sacred  tiling  on  earth,"  his  neighbors,  and 
possibly  his  acquaintances,  by  their  acts  are  disproving  the 
argument.  The  North  is  often  accused  of  putting  into  the 
heads  of  Southern  Negroes  misleading  and  dangerous  no- 
tions of  social  equality,  but  what  influence  can  be  so  potent 
in  that  direction  as  the  well-founded  conviction  of  negro 
women  that  they  are  desired  to  be  the  nearest  of  compan- 
ions to  white  men  ? 

There  is,  of  course,  a  universal  prohibition  in  the 
South  against  marriage  of  the  two  races,  and  these  stat- 
utes express  the  wish  of  the  community;  they  put  such 
practices  to  the  ban;  they  make  possible  the  rare  cases  of 
prosecution,  which  commonly  break  down  for  lack  of  tes- 
timony. Nevertheless  the  law  does  not  persuade  the  negro 
women  that  there  can  be  any  great  moral  wrong  in  what 
so  many  of  the  white  race  practice.  The  active  members 
of  the  negro  race  are  in  general  too  busy  about  other 
things  to  discuss  the  question  of  amalgamation  which  there 
is  no  prospect  of  legalizing;  but  it  lies  deep  in  the  heart 
of  the  race  that  the  prohibition  of  marriage  is  for  the 
restraint  of  the  Whites  rather  than  of  the  Negroes;  that 
it  does  not  make  colored  families  any  safer;  and  that  if 
there  were  no  legal  prohibition  many  of  these  irregular 
unions  would  become  marriages. 

One  of  the  curious  by-currents  of  this  discussion  is  the 
preposterous  conviction  of  many  Southern  writers  that, 
inasmuch  as  these  relations  are  between  white  men  and 
negro  women,  there  is  no  "pollution  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
blood;"  thus  Thomas  Dixon,  Jr.,  insists  that  the  present 
incial  mixture  "has  no  social  significance  .  .  .  the  racial 
integrity  remains  intact.  The  right  to  choose  one's  mate 
i>  the  foundation  of  racial  life  and  civilization.  The 
11  155 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

South  must  guard  with  flaming  sword  every  avenue  of 
approach  to  this  holy  of  holies." 

On  the  other  hand,  and  just  as  powerful,  is  the  abso- 
lute determination  of  the  Whites  never  to  admit  the  mu- 
lattoes  within  their  own  circle.  The  usual  legal  phrase 
"  person  of  color  "  includes  commonly  everybody  who  has 
as  much  as  an  eighth  of  negro  blood,  and  in  two  states 
anyone  who  has  a  visible  trace.  But  social  usage  goes  far 
beyond  this  limit,  and  no  person  supposed  to  have  the 
slightest  admixture  of  negro  blood  would  be  admitted  to 
any  social  function  in  any  Southern  city.  In  1905  there 
was  a  dramatic  trial  in  North  Carolina  brought  about  by 
the  exclusion  from  a  public  school  of  six  girls,  descendants 
from  one  Jeffrey  Graham,  who  lived  a  hundred  years 
ago  and  was  suspected  of  having  negro  blood.  The 
Graham  family  alleged  that  they  had  a  Portuguese  ances- 
tor, and  brought  into  court  a  dark-skinned  Portuguese  to 
show  how  the  mistake  might  have  arisen;  and  eventually 
the  court  declared  them  members  of  the  superior  race. 

The  reason  for  the  intense  Southern  feeling  on  race 
equality  is  to  a  large  extent  the  belief  that  friendly  in- 
tercourse with  the  Negro  on  anything  but  well-understood 
terms  of  the  superior  talking  to  the  inferior  is  likely  to 
lead  to  an  amalgamation,  which  may  involve  a  large  part 
of  the  white  race.  The  evils  of  the  present  system  are 
manifest.  The  most  reckless  and  low-minded  Whites  are 
preying  on  what  ought  to  be  one  of  the  best  parts  of  the 
negro  race.  Thousands  of  children  come  into  the  world 
with  an  ineffaceable  mark  of  bastardy;  the  greater  part 
of  such  children  are  absolutely  neglected  by  their  fathers ; 
the  decent  negro  men  feel  furious  at  the  danger  to  their 
families  or  the  frailness  of  their  sisters.  Both  races  have 
their  own  moral  blemishes,  and  it  is  a  double  and  treble 

156 


RACE    ASSOCIATION 

misfortune  that  there  should  be  inter-racial  mixtures  on 
such  degrading  terms. 

As  for  a  remedy,  nobody  seems  able  to  suggest  anything 
that  has  so  far  worked.  A  recent  writer  soberly  suggests 
that  a  way  out  is  to  make  a  pariah  of  the  mulatto,  in- 
cluding that  part  of  the  mulattoes  who  are  born  of  mulatto 
or  negro  parents;  they  are  to  be  shut  from  the  schools, 
excluded  from  all  missionary  efforts,  made  a  race  apart; 
and  that  action  he  thinks  would  be  a  moral  lesson  to  the 
full-blooded  Africans !  Another  method  is  that  of  the 
anti-miscegenation  league  of  Vicksburg,  Miss.,  which  aims 
to  make  public  the  names  of  offenders  and  to  prosecute 
them.  A  better  remedy  would  be  the  systematic  appli- 
cation of  the  existing  laws  of  the  state,  with  at  least  as 
much  zeal  as  is  given  to  the  enforcement  of  the  Jim  Crow 
laws.  In  the  last  resort  there  is  no  remedy  except  such 
an  awakening  of  public  sentiment  as  will  drive  out  of  the 
ranks  of  respectable  men  and  women  those  who  practice 
these  vices.  Such  a  sentiment  exists  in  the  churches,  the 
philanthropic  societies,  and  an  army  of  straightforward 
sensible  men  and  women.  The  evil  is  probably  somewhat 
abating;  but  till  it  is  far  reduced  how  can  anybody  in  the 
South  argue  that  education  and  material  improvement  of 
the  Negro  are  what  most  powerfully  tends  to  social  equal- 
ity? Just  so  far  as  the  negro  man  and  the  negro  woman 
are,  by  a  better  station  in  life,  by  aroused  self-respect 
and  race  pride,  led  to  protect  themselves,  so  far  will  this 
evil  be  diminished. 

The  subject  cannot  be  left  without  taking  ground  upon 
the  underlying  issue.  All  the  faults  of  the  Southern  men 
who  are  practical  amalgamators  add  weight  to  the  bottom 
contention  of  the  South  that  a  mixture  of  the  races,  now 
or  in  the  future,  would  be  calamitous.  That  belief  rests 

157 


THE    SOUTHERN   SOUTH 

upon  the  conviction  that  the  negro  race,  on  the  average, 
is  below  the  white  race;  that  it  can  never  he  expected  to 
contribute  anything  like  its  proportion  of  the  strength  of 
the  community;  and  hence  to  fuse  the  races  means  slight 
or  no  elevation  for  the  Negro,  and  a  great  decline  for  the 
white  race.  With  that  belief  the  writer  coincides.  The 
union  of  the  two  races  means  a  decline  in  the  rate  of  civil- 
ization; and  the  fact  that  so  much  of  it  is  going  on  is 
not  a  reason  for  legalizing  it,  but  for  sternly  suppress- 
ing it.  If  amalgamation  is  dangerous  and  would  pull 
down  the  standard  of  that  higher  part  of  the  commu- 
nity which  must  always  be  dominant,  then  such  steps 
must  be  taken  in  all  justice,  in  all  humanity,  with  all 
effort  to  raise  both  races,  as  are  necessary  to  prevent 
amalgamation. 

While  thus  in  one  way  fully  recognized  as  a  human 
being  and  of  like  blood  with  the  Whites,  upon  the  other 
side  the  Negro  is  set  aside  by  a  race  prejudice  which  in 
many  respects  is  fiercer  and  more  unyielding  than  in  the 
days  of  slavery.  One  of  the  few  compensations  for  slavery 
was  the  not  infrequent  personal  friendship  between  the 
master  and  the  slave;  they  were  sometimes  nursed  at  the 
same  tawny  breast;  and  played  together  as  children; 
Jonas  Field,  of  Lady's  Island,  to  this  day  remembers  with 
pride  how  after  the  war,  when  he  became  free,  his  old 
master,  whose  body  servant  he  had  been,  took  him  to  his 
house,  presented  him  to  his  daughters,  and  bade  them  al- 
ways remember  that  Jonas  Field  had  been  one  of  the 
family,  and  was  to  be  treated  with  the  respect  of  a  father. 
The  influence  of  the  white  mistress  on  those  few  slaves 
who  were  near  to  her  is  one  of  the  brightest  things  in 
slavery.  She  visited  the  negro  cabins,  counseled  the 
mothers,  cared  for  the  sick,  and  by  life  and  conversation 

158 


RACE    ASSOCIATION 

tried  to  build  up  their  character.  It  is  almost  the  universal 
testimony  that  such  relations  are  disappearing ;  rare  is  the 
white  foot  that  steps  within  the  Negro's  cabin.  John 
Sharp  Williams,  of  Mississippi,  says :  "  More  and  more 
every  year  the  negro's  life — moral,  intellectual,  and  indus- 
trial— is  isolated  from  the  white  man's  life,  and  there- 
fore from  his  influence.  There  was  a  kindlier  and  more 
confidential  relationship  .  .  .  when  I  was  a  boy  than 
between  my  children  and  the  present  generation  of 
negroes." 

It  is  a  singular  fact  that  the  feeling  of  race  antago- 
nism has  sprung  up  comparatively  recently;  to  this  day 
there  are  remnants  of  the  old  clan  idea  of  the  great  plan- 
tations. Thousands  of  Negroes  choose  some  White  as  a 
friend  and  sponsor,  and  in  case  of  difficulty  ask  him  for 
advice,  for  a  voucher  of  character,  or  for  money,  and  are 
seldom  disappointed.  The  lower  stratum  of  the  Whites, 
which  is  thrown  into  close  juxtaposition  with  Negroes, 
finds  no  difficulty  in  a  kind  of  rude  companionship,  pro- 
vided it  is  not  too  much  noticed.  The  sentimental  and 
sometimes  artificial  love  for  the  old  colored  "  mammy " 
is  a  disappearing  bond  between  the  races,  for  though  the 
white  children  are  cared  for  almost  everywhere  by  negro 
girls,  there  seems  little  affection  between  the  nurse  and  her 
charge. 

Some  Southern  authorities  assert  that  race  hatred  was 
fomented  toward  the  end  of  Reconstruction.  Says  "  Nicho- 
las Worth  " :  "  Men  whose  faithful  servants  were  negroes, 
negroes  who  had  shined  their  shoes  in  the  morning  and 
cooked  their  breakfasts  and  dressed  their  children  and 
groomed  their  horses  and  driven  them  to  their  offices, 
negroes  who  were  the  faithful  servants  and  constant 
attendants  on  their  families, — such  men  spent  the  day  de- 

159 


claring  the  imminent  danger  of  negro  '  equality '  and 
'  domination/  "  The  same  genial  writer  goes  on  to  describe 
the  gloom  at  the  supposed  flood  of  African  despotism ;  they 
said :  "  Our  liberties  were  in  peril ;  our  very  blood  would 
be  polluted ;  dark  night  would  close  over  us, — us,  degener- 
ate sons  of  glorious  sires, — if  we  did  not  rise  in  righteous 
might  and  stem  the  barbaric  flood."  Though  in  all  the 
states  the  Negroes  were  swept  out  of  political  power  by 
1876,  to  this  day  they  are  popularly  supposed  to  be  plan- 
ning some  kind  of  domination  over  the  Whites.  This 
made-up  race  issue  is  not  yet  extinct.  Nobody  knows  the 
inner  spirit  of  a  certain  section  of  the  South  better  than 
Thomas  E.  Watson,  of  Georgia,  who  has  recently  said: 
"  The  politicians  keep  the  negro  question  alive  in  the  South 
to  perpetuate  their  hold  on  public  office.  The  negro  ques- 
tion is  the  joy  of  their  lives.  It  is  their  very  existence. 
They  fatten  on  it.  With  one  shout  of  '  nigger ! '  they  can 
run  the  native  Democrats  into  their  holes  at  any  hour  of 
the  day." 

How  does  this  feeling  strike  the  Negro  ?  Let  an  intel- 
ligent man,  Johnson,  in  his  "  Light  Ahead  for  the  Negro," 
speak  for  himself.  He  complains  that  the  newspapers  use 
inflammatory  headlines  and  urge  lynchings — "  a  whole- 
sale assassination  of  Negro  character";  that  it  is  made  a 
social  crime  to  employ  Negroes  as  clerks  in  a  white  store ; 
that  the  cultured  Southern  people  spread  abroad  the  im- 
putation that  the  Negro  as  a  race  is  worthless;  that  the 
news  agents  are  prejudiced  against  the  Negro  and  give 
misleading  accounts  of  difficulties  with  the  Whites;  that 
people  thought  to  be  friendly  are  hounded  out  of  their 
positions;  that  there  is  a  desire  to  expatriate  the  negroes 
from  the  country  of  their  fathers.  Kelly  Miller,  a  pro- 
fessor in  Howard  University,  Washington,  objects  to  using 

160 


RACE    ASSOCIATION 

physical  dissimilarity  as  a  mark  of  inferiority,  and  thinks 
"  that  the  feeling  against  the  negro  is  of  the  nature  of 
inspirited  animosity  rather  than  natural  antipathy " ; 
and  that  "the  dominant  South  is  determined  to  foster 
artificial  hatred  between  the  races." 

Race  prejudice  has  always  existed  since  the  races  have 
lived  together;  but,  whether  because  taught  to  the  boys 
of  the  Reconstruction  epoch,  or  whether  because  the  Ne- 
groes have  made  slower  progress  than  was  hoped,  it  is 
sharper  now  than  in  the  whole  history  of  the  question. 
Is  it  founded  on  an  innate  race  repulsion?  Does  the 
white  man  necessarily  fear  and  dislike  the  Negro?  The 
white  child  does  not,  nor  the  lowest  stratum  of  Whites, 
who  are  nearest  the  Negro  intellectually  and  morally. 
John  Sharp  Williams  says:  "If  I  were  to  call  our 
race  feeling  anything  etymologically,  I  would  call  it  a 
'  post-judice '  and  not  a  '  pre-judice.'  I  notice  that  no- 
body has  our  race  feeling  or  any  race  feeling  indeed 
until  after  knowledge.  It  is  a  conviction  born  of  ex- 
perience." 

Right  here  the  champions  of  the  Negro  discern  a  joint 
in  the  armor;  thus,  DuBois:  "  Men  call  the  shadow  preju- 
dice, and  learnedly  explain  it  as  the  natural  defense  of 
culture  against  barbarism,  learning  against  ignorance, 
purity  against  crime,  the  '  higher '  against  the  '  lower ' 
races.  To  which  the  Negro  cries  Amen!  and  swears  that 
to  so  much  of  this  strange  prejudice  as  is  founded  on  just 
homage  to  civilization,  culture,  righteousness,  and  prog- 
ress, he  humbly  bows  down  and  meekly  does  obeisance." 
Is  not  this  the  crux  of  the  whole  matter?  Is  it  prejudice 
against  a  low  race,  or  a  black  race?  To  say  that  the  white 
Southerner  looks  down  upon  and  despises  every  black 
Southerner  would  not  be  fair,  for  there  is  still  much  per- 

161 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

ponal  liking  between  members  of  the  two  races,  and  the 
South  is  right  in  claiming  that  it  has  a  warmer  feeling 
for  individual  Negroes  than  Northern  people.  Said  a 
Southern  judge  once :  "  If  my  old  black  mammy  comes  into 
the  house,  she  hugs  and  kisses  my  little  girl.  But  if  she 
should  sit  down  in  the  parlor,  I  should  have  to  knock  her 
down."  That  is,  he  liked  the  mammy,  but  the  nigger  must 
be  taught  to  keep  her  place. 

The  phrase  commonly  used  to  describe  this  feeling  is, 
"  The  danger  of  social  equality."  Here  is  one  of  the  mys- 
teries of  the  subject  which  the  Northern  mind  cannot 
penetrate.  Southern  society,  so  proud,  so  exclusive,  so 
efficient  in  protecting  itself  from  the  undesired,  is  in  ter- 
ror lest  it  should  be  found  admitting  the  fearful  curse  of 
social  equality;  and  there  are  plenty  of  Southern  writers 
who  insist  that  the  Negro  shall  be  deprived  of  the  use  of 
public  conveniences,  of  education,  of  a  livelihood,  lest  he, 
the  weak,  the  despised,  force  social  equality  upon  the 
white  race.  What  is  social  equality  if  not  a  mutual 
feeling  in  a  community  that  each  member  is  welcome  to 
the  social  intercourse  of  the  other?  How  is  the  Negro 
to  attain  social  equality  so  long  as  the  white  man  refuses 
to  invite  him  or  to  be  invited  with  him?  It  sounds  like 
a  joke ! 

The  point  of  view  of  the  South  was  revealed  in  1903 
when  President  Koosevelt  invited  Booker  Washington  to 
his  table.  The  South  rang  from  end  to  end  with  invec- 
tive and  alarm;  the  governor  of  a  Southern  state  publicly 
insulted  the  President  and  his  family ;  a  boy  in  Washington 
wrote  a  scurrilous  denunciation  on  the  school  blackboard; 
the  Charleston  News  and  Courier  rolled  the  incident  un- 
der its  tongue  like  a  sweet  morsel;  a  Georgia  judge  said: 
"  The  invitation  is  a  blow  aimed  not  only  at  the  South, 

163 


but  at  the  whole  white  race,  and  should  be  resented,  and 
the  President  should  be  regarded  and  treated  on  the  same 
plane  with  negroes,"  and  from  that  day  to  this  the  in- 
vitation has  been  received  as  an  affront  and  an  injury 
to  the  Whites  in  the  South.  We  are  told  of  the  terrible 
consequences;  how  a  black  boy  refused  any  longer  to  call 
the  sixteen-year-old  son  of  his  employer  "Mister";  how 
the  Negro  from  that  time  on  has  felt  himself  a  person  of 
consequence.  It  does  not  appear  that  the  President's 
example  was  followed  by  any  Southern  governor;  or 
that  any  Negro  invited  himself  to  dinner  with  a  white 
person.  To  the  Northern  mind  the  incident  was  simply 
a  recognition,  by  the  acknowledged  leader  of  all  Amer- 
icans, of  the  acknowledged  leader  of  black  Americans. 
The  Southern  mind  somehow  cannot  distinguish  be- 
tween sitting  at  the  same  table  with  a  man  and  mak- 
ing him  your  children's  guardian.  The  whole  argument 
comes  down  to  the  level  of  the  phrase  used  so  constantly 
when  the  question  of  setting  the  slaves  free  was  before 
the  country :  "  Do  you  want  your  daughter  to  marry  a 
nigger?" 

What  the  phrase  "  social  equality  "  really  means  is  that 
if  anything  is  done  to  raise  the  negro  race  it  will  demand 
to  be  raised  all  the  way.  But  demand  is  a  long  way  short 
of  reality.  Northerners  have  their  social  prejudices  and 
preferences;  yet  they  are  not  afraid  that  an  Arab  or  a 
Syrian  immigrant  is  going  to  burst  their  doors  and  com- 
pel them  at  the  muzzle  of  the  rifle  to  like  him,  invite  him, 
make  him  their  intimate;  nobody  can  establish  social 
equality  by  law  or  public  sentiment.  Everybody  should 
sympathize  with  the  desire  of  the  South  to  keep  unim- 
paired the  standards  of  civilization;  but  the  friendliest 
Northerner  cannot  understand  why  a  Southern  business 

163 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

man  feels  such  a  danger  that  he  writes  of  social  equal- 
ity :  "  Eight  or  wrong,  the  Southern  people  will  never 
tolerate  it,  and  will  go  through  the  horrors  of  another 
reconstruction  before  they  will  permit  it  to  he.  Before 
they  will  submit  to  it,  they  will  kill  every  negro  in  the 
Soutbern  states." 

This  ceaseless  dwelling  on  a  danger  which  no  thought- 
ful man  thinks  impending  leads  to  attacks  of  popular 
hysteria  in  the  South.  A  few  months  ago  in  the  town  of 
Madison,  Ga.,  it  was  reported :  "  Last  night  great  excite- 
ment prevailed  in  Madison  caused  by  the  appearance  on 
the  electric-light  poles  in  the  city  of  a  yellow  flag  about  two 
feet  long,  with  the  word  '  Surrender '  printed  in  large  let- 
ters in  the  center  of  it.  Women  became  hysterical  and 
thought  it  was  the  sign  of  a  negro  uprising.  Extra  police 
was  installed  and  it  was  thought  of  calling  out  the  mili- 
tary company.  At  the  height  of  the  excitement,  it  was 
learned  that  the  signs  had  been  posted  as  an  advertisement 
•  by  a  firm  here.  Cases  have  been  made  against  the  members 
of  the  firm." 

The  real  point  with  regard  to  social  equality  is  not 
that  the  Negro  is  inferior,  but  that  his  inferiority  must  be 
made  evident  at  every  turn.  You  may  ride  beside  a  negro 
driver  on  the  front  seat  of  a  carriage,  because  any  passerby 
sees  that  he  is  doing  your  bidding;  but  you  must  not  sit 
on  the  back  seat  with  a  Negro  who  might  be  a  fellow- 
passenger;  you  may  stop  at  a  Negro's  house,  if  there  is 
absolutely  no  other  place  to  stay,  sit  at  his  table,  eat  of  his 
food,  but  he  must  stand  while  you  sit;  else,  as  one  of  the 
richest  Negroes  in  the  South  said,  "  the  neighbors  would 
burn  our  house  over  our  heads."  The  whole  South  is  full 
of  evidence,  not  so  much  that  the  Whites  think  the  Negroes 
inferior,  as  that  they  think  it  necessary  to  fix  upon  him 

364 


RACE    ASSOCIATION 

some  public  evidence  of  inferiority,  lest  mistakes  be  made. 
It  was  against  such  confusion  of  the  character  and  the 
color  that  Governor  Andrew  protested  when  he  said :  "  I 
have  never  despised  a  man  because  he  was  poor,  or  because 
he  was  ignorant,  or  because  he  was  black." 


CHAPTER   XIII 

RACE  SEPARATION 

STRONG  and  passionate  dislike  and  apprehension 
such  as  is  set  forth  in  the  last  chapter  is  certain  to 
show  itself  in  custom  and  law  set  up  by  that  portion 
of  the  community  which  has  the  power  of  legislation.  The 
commonest  measures  of  this  kind  are  discriminations  be- 
tween Whites  and  Negroes,  especially  in  the  use  of  public 
conveniences.  In  some  cases  the  white  people  shut  out  Ne- 
groes altogether.  There  are  perhaps  half  a  dozen  towns 
in  the  South  in  which  none  but  Negroes  live;  there  are 
scores  in  which  the  Negroes  are  not  allowed  to  settle  or 
stay.  Two  counties  in  North  Carolina  (Mitchell  and 
Watauga)  undertake  to  exclude  Negroes;  and  people  who 
attempt  to  go  through  there  with  a  black  driver  are  con- 
fronted by  such  signs  as  "  Nigger,  keep  out  of  this  coun- 
ty ! "  If  that  is  not  sufficient,  a  native  comes  swinging 
across  the  fields  and  remarks :  "  I  don't  want  to  have  any 
trouble,  and  I  don't  suppose  it  makes  any  difference  to 
you,  but  if  that  nigger  goes  two  miles  farther,  he'll  be 
shot.  We  don't  allow  any  niggers  in  this  county."  Such 
exclusions  are  not  unknown  in  other  states.  In  the  town 
of  Syracuse,  Ohio,  for  generations  no  Negro  has  ever  been 
allowed  to  stay  overnight;  and  the  founder  of  a  little 
city  in  Oklahoma  heard  his  buildings  blown  up  at  night 
because  he  had  ventured  to  domicile  colored  servants  there. 

166 


PACE    SEPARATION1" 

In  the  two  Northern  settlements  of  Fitzgerald,  Ga.,  and 
Cullman,  Ala.,  the  attempt  was  made  to  keep  Negroes  out 
altogether. 

In  addition  to  these  artificial  separations,  there  is  a 
redistribution  of  the  population  going  on  all  the  while. 
Few  of  the  owners  of  xgood  plantations  any  longer  live  on 
them,  and  the  outlying  Whites  move  into  town,  or  into 
counties  where  Negroes  are  fewer.  The  places  thus  vacated 
are  taken  up  through  rent  or  purchase  by  colored  people; 
so  that  we  have  the  striking  phenomenon  that  black  coun- 
ties are  getting  blacker  and  white  counties  whiter.  Thus 
in  Pulaski  County,  Ga.,  in  thirty  years  the  Negroes 
doubled  and  the  Whites  increased  only  about  twenty  per 
cent.  The  same  thing  is  true  inside  the  cities  and  towns ; 
most  of  them  have  well-marked  negro  quarters,  near  or 
alongside  which  none  but  the  lowest  Whites  like  to  live. 
In  Richmond,  on  one  of  the  main  streets,  it  is  tacitly 
understood  that  the  Negroes  take  the  north  sidewalk  and 
the  Whites  the  south  sidewalk.  Probably  no  place  is  now 
quite  so  strict  in  the  matter  as  Morristown,  Tenn.,  was 
twenty-five  years  ago,  when  white  women  first  came  to 
teach  the  Negroes;  they  were  literally  thrown  off  the  side- 
walks into  the  gutter  because  that  was  the  only  place  where 
"  niggers  or  nigger-lovers  "  were  allowed  to  walk. 

The  principle  of  race  separation  extends  from  civil  into 
religious  matters.  Before  the  Civil  War  Negroes  were 
often  acceptable  and  honored  members  of  white  churches, 
and  there  are  still  some  cases  where  old  members  continue 
this  relation,  but  they  could  now  hardly  sit  in  the  same 
pews.  There  are  also  difficulties  in  attempts  to  unite 
separate  black  and  white  churches  into  one  general  de- 
nomination. The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  is  much 
perplexed  over  a  proposition  for  separate  negro  bishops, 

167 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

inferior  to  the  regular  bishops.  However,  not  a  twentieth 
of  the  Negroes  to-day  are  members  of  churches  which  are 
in  organic  relation  to  white  churches;  they  have  their  own 
presbyteries,  and  conferences,  and  synods;  set  their  own 
doctrines  and  moral  standards,  and  (if  the  white  man  is 
right  in  thinking  the  race  inferior)  they  will  necessarily 
develop  an  inferior  Christianity. 

The  discriminations  so  far  mentioned  have  to  do  with 
unwritten  practices;  with  customs  which  differ  from  com- 
munit}^  to  community;  there  is  another  long  series  upon 
the  statute  books.  In  1865,  in  the  so-called  Vagrant  Laws, 
special  provision  was  made  for  the  relations  of  colored 
people;  four  states  allowed  colored  children  to  be  "ap- 
prenticed," which  practically  meant  a  mild  slavery;  in 
South  Carolina  "  servants,"  as  the  Negroes  were  called  in 
the  statute,  were  forbidden  to  leave  their  master's  place 
without  consent;  Mississippi  forbade  people  to  rent  land 
to  Negroes  outside  the  towns;  South  Carolina  established 
a  special  court  for  the  trial  of  negro  offenses;  several 
states  forbade  blacks  to  practice  any  trade  or  business 
without  a  license.  These  laws,  which  competent  South- 
erners now  think  to  have  been  a  serious  mistake,  seemed 
to  Congress  evidence  of  a  purpose  to  restore  a  milder  form 
of  slavery,  and  they  were  swept  away  by  the  Reconstruc- 
tion governments.  Nevertheless,  in  all  the  Southern  states, 
constitutions  or  statutes  forbid  the  intermarriage  of 
Whites  and  Negroes;  and  either  during  Reconstruction  or 
since,  all  the  Southern  states  have  provided  for  separate 
public  schools  for  Negroes;  and  several  states  prohibit  the 
education  of  Whites  and  blacks  in  the  same  private  school. 

The  most  striking  discrimination  is  the  separate  accom- 
modations on  railroads  and  steamboats,  which  has  entirely 
grown  up  since  the  Civil  War.  In  slavery  times  few 

168 


KACE    SEPARATION 

Negroes  traveled  except  as  the  obvious  servants  of  white 
people;  but  in  1865  legislation  began  for  separate  ears 
or  compartments,  and  of  the  former  slaveholding  states, 
only  two,  Missouri  and  Delaware,  are  now  without  laws  on 
that  subject.  The  term  "  Jim  Crow  "  commonly  applied 
to  these  laws  goes  back  to  an  old  negro  song  and  dance, 
and  was  first  used  in  Massachusetts,  where,  in  1841,  the 
races  were  thus  separated.  The  Civil  Eights  Act  of  Con- 
gress of  1875  forbade  such  distinctions,  but  was  held  un- 
constitutional by  the  Supreme  Court  in  1883.  Several 
state  and  federal  cases  have  given  opportunity  for  the 
courts  to  decide  that  if  there  is  a  division  between  the 
two  races,  the  accommodations  must  be  equal.  Hence, 
most  Southern  trains  have  a  separate  Jim  Crow  car,  with 
a  smoking  compartment.  The  Pullman  Car  Company, 
perhaps  because  its  business  is  chiefly  interstate,  has  hesi- 
tated to  make  distinctions,  and  commonly  will  sell  a  berth 
to  anybody  who  will  show  a  railroad  ticket  good  on  the  ap- 
propriate train ;  but  in  some  states  there  are  now  demands 
for  separate  colored  Pullmans,  or  for  colored  compart- 
ments, or  for  excluding  Negroes  altogether.  But  nobody 
who  knows  the  Pullman  Car  Company  will  for  a  moment 
expect  that  it  will  do  anything  because  patrons  desire  it. 
The  discrimination  in  many  states  extends  to  the  stations. 
For  instance,  in  the  beautiful  new  Spanish  Mission  build- 
ing at  Mobile,  there  are  separate  waiting  rooms,  separate 
ticket  windows,  and  two  exits — one  for  Whites  and  one  for 
colored  people.  In  Greensboro,  N.  C.,  the  waiting  room, 
a  large  and  lofty  hall,  is  simply  bisected  by  a  brass  railing. 
Similar  laws  apply  to  steamboats,  though  here  it  is  not 
BO  easy  to  shut  off  part  of  the  passengers  from  the  gen- 
eral facilities  of  the  boat.  Even  in  the  Boston  steamers 
running  to  Southern  ports  there  are  separate  dining 

169 


THE    SOTJTHBHN    SOUTH 

rooms,  toilet  rooms  and  smoking  rooms  for  colored  pas- 
sengers. Eight  Southern  states  separate  street-car  pas- 
sengers; sometimes  they  have  a  separate  compartment  for 
Negroes — more  often,  a  little  movable  sign  is  shifted  up 
and  down  the  car  to  divide  the  races.  Elsewhere,  Whites 
sit  at  one  end  and  Negroes  at  the  other,  and  fill  up  till 
they  meet.  In  most  of  these  laws  there  is  an  exception, 
allowing  colored  nurses  with  white  children  and  colored 
attendants  of  feeble  or  sick  people  to  enter  the  white  car; 
and  it  has  been  thought  necessary  to  provide  that  railroad 
employees,  white  or  black,  may  circulate  through  the  train. 

In  restaurants  and  hotels  the  distinction  is  still 
sharper,  for  except  those  which  are  kept  only  for  the  accom- 
modations of  Negroes,  there  is  no  provision  for  tables  for 
colored  people  in  any  form  outside  of  the  railroad  eating 
houses.  It  is  hence  practically  impossible  for  any  colored 
person  to  get  accommodation  in  a  Southern  hotel. 

These  discriminations  on  travel  have  never  been  de- 
sired by  the  railroad  companies,  inasmuch  as  they  involve 
trouble  and  expense,  and  are  a  check  on  the  Negro's  love 
for  riding  on  trains  and  boats,  which  is  an  important 
factor  in  the  passenger  receipts.  It  is  everywhere  disliked 
by  the  Negroes,  both  because  they  do  not,  in  fact,  have 
accommodations  a&  good  as  those  of  the  Whites,  and  because 
it  is  intended  to  be  a  mark  of  their  inferiority.  The  low- 
class  white  man  who,  in  1902,  acted  as  ticket  agent,  bag- 
gage man  and  division  superintendent  and  conductor  on 
the  three-mile  branch  road  connecting  Tuskegee  with  the 
main  line  remarked  affably :  "  Been  to  see  the  nigger 
school,  I  suppose?  That's  all  right,  Booker  Washington's 
all  right.  Oh,  yes,  he's  a  good  man,  he  often  rides  on 
this  train.  Not  in  this  part  of  the  car,  you  know,  but  over 
there  in  the  Jim  Crow.  Oh,  yes,  I  often  set  down  and  talk 

170 


RACE   SEPARATION 

to  Booker  "Washington.  Not  on  the  same  seat  of  course. 
Jest  near  by." 

Besides  these  shackles  of  custom  or  of  law,  the  Negro 
is  in  general  excluded  in  the  South  from  every  position 
which  might  be  construed  to  give  him  authority  over  white 
people.  The  civil  service  of  the  federal  government  is 
on  a  different  footing;  ever  since  war  times  there  have 
always  been  some  negro  federal  officials,  collectors  of  in- 
ternal revenue,  collectors  of  ports,  postmasters,  and  the 
like;  but  there  is  a  determined  effort  in  the  South  to  get 
rid  of  them.  At  Lake  City,  S.  C.,  in  1898,  part  of  the 
family  of  Baker,  the  negro  postmaster,  was  massacred 
as  a  hint  that  his  presence  was  not  desired.  The  people 
of  Indianola,  Miss.,  in  1903,  practically  served  notice  on 
a  colored  postmistress  that  she  could  not  be  allowed  to 
officiate  any  longer;  whereupon  President  Roosevelt  di- 
rected the  closing  of  the  Indianola  office.  When  in  1902 
Dr.  Crum  was  appointed  collector  of  Charleston,  there  was 
an  uproar  in  South  Carolina  and  throughout  the  South. 
That  episode  involved  some  painful  and  some  comical 
things;  for  instance,  a  white  lady  who  bears  one  of  the 
most  honored  names  in  American  history,  and  who  sorely 
needed  the  employment,  was  practically  compelled  by  pub- 
lic sentiment  to  resign  a  clerkship  in  the  customhouse 
when  Dr.  Crum  came  in;  and  the  people  who  protested 
against  his  appointment,  on  the  ground  that  he  was  unfit, 
had  previously  helped  to  select  him  as  a  commissioner  in 
the  Charleston  Exposition. 

In  all  these  controversies  the  issue  was  double;  first, 
that  the  white  people  thought  it  an  indignity  to  transact 
any  public  business  with  a  Negro  representing  the  United 
States ;  and  second,  that  it  would  somehow  bring  about  race 
equality  to  admit  that  a  Negro  was  competent  to  hold  any 
12  171 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

important  office.  The  President  was  furiously  censured 
because  he  did  not  take  into  account  the  preferences  of  the 
Southern  people,  by  which,  of  course,  was  meant  the 
Southern  white  people;  that  in  South  Carolina  there  are 
more  African  citizens  than  Caucasian  seemed  to  them  quite 
beside  the  question. 

For  minor  offices  the  lines  are  not  so  strictly  drawn; 
there  are  a  few  colored  policemen  in  Charleston,  and  per- 
haps other  Southern  cities;  Negro  towns  like  Mound 
Bayou,  Miss.,  have  their  own  set  of  officials;  and  there 
are  some  small  county  offices  which  a  few  Negroes  are  al- 
lowed to  hold.  Nearly  two  thousand  are  employed  in  some 
capacity  in  the  federal  departments  at  Washington;  about 
two  thousand  more  under  the  District  government;  and 
a  thousand  more  elsewhere,  mostly  in  the  South.  These 
are  chiefly  in  the  postal  service;  there  are  some  negro 
letter  carriers  in  all  the  Southern  cities,  and  in  Mobile 
there  are  no  others.  They  get  these  appointments,  and 
likewise  places  as  railway  mail  clerks  on  competitive  ex- 
amination— an  especially  hard  twist  to  the  doctrine  of 
race  equality;  for  what  is  the  world  coming  to  if  a  nigger 
gets  more  marks  on  an  examination  than  a  white  man? 
For  the  feeling  that  the  Negro  in  authority  is  overbearing 
and  presumptuous  there  is  some  ground,  but  the  attitude 
of  the  South  is  substantially  expressed  in  the  common 
phrase,  "  This  is  a  white  man's  government,"  and  is  closely 
allied  with  the  bogy  of  African  domination,  which  is 
trotted  out  from  time  to  time  to  arouse  the  jaded  energies 
of  race  prejudice. 

One  of  the  most  unaccountable  things  in  this  whole  con- 
troversy is  the  evident  apprehension  of  a  large  section  in 
the  South  that  unless  something  immediate  and  positive 
is  done,  the  Negro  will  get  control  of  some  of  the  Southern 

172 


RACE    SEPARATION 

states,  notwithstanding  such  protests  as  the  following: 
"  And  even  where  they  represent  a  majority, — where  do 
they  rule  ?  or  where  have  they  ruled  for  these  twenty  years  ? 
The  South,  with  all  its  millions  of  negroes,  has  to-day  not 
a  single  negro  congressman,  not  a  negro  governor  or 
senator.  A  few  obscure  justices  of  the  peace,  a  few  negro 
mayors  in  small  villages  of  negro  people,  and — if  we  omit 
the  few  federal  appointees — we  have  written  the  total  of 
all  the  negro  officials  in  our  Southern  States.  Every 
possibility  of  negro  domination  vanishes  to  a  more  shad- 
owy and  more  distant  point  with  every  year."  As  will 
be  shown  a  little  later,  the  Negro's  vote  is  no  longer  a 
factor  in  most  of  the  Southern  states,  and  he  shows  no 
disposition  to  take  over  the  responsibility  for  Southern 
government.  The  cry  of  negro  domination  has  been  more 
unfortunate  for  the  Whites  than  for  the  blacks  because 
it  has  thrown  the  Southern  states  out  of  their  adjustment 
in  national  parties;  in  the  state  election  of  1908  for  Gov- 
ernor of  Georgia,  the  issue  was  between  Clark  Howells, 
who  was  much  against  the  Negro,  and  the  successful  candi- 
date, Hoke  Smith,  who  is  mighty  against  the  Negro;  but 
neither  Howells  nor  Smith  brought  out  of  the  controversy 
any  reputation  that  dazzled  the  Democratic  Convention 
of  1908. 

No  party  founded  on  negro  votes  or  organized  to  pro- 
tect negro  rights  any  longer  exists  in  the  South.  In 
Alabama  there  are  still  "  black-and-tan  Republicans  " — 
that  is,  an  organization  of  Negroes  and  Whites,  and  one 
of  the  most  rabid  Negro  haters  in  the  South  is  a  dignitary 
in  that  organization  and  helped  to  choose  delegates  for 
the  Republican  national  convention  of  1908.  Throughout 
the  South  there  are  also  what  are  called  the  "  Lily  white  Re- 
publicans"— that  is,  people  who  are  trying  to  build  up  their 

1T3 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

party  by  disclaiming  any  partnership  with  the  Negro  or 
special  interest  in  his  welfare.  Neither  of  these  factions 
makes  head  against  the  overpowering  "  White  Man's 
party,"  which  is  also  the  Democratic  party;  hence  every 
state  in  the  Lower  South  can  be  depended  upon  to  vote 
for  any  candidate  propounded  by  the  national  Democratic 
convention;  hence  the  section  has  little  influence  in  the 
selection  of  a  candidate,  who  yet  would  not  have  a  ghost 
of  a  chance  without  their  votes.  The  net  result  of  the 
scare  cry  of  negro  domination  is  that  the  Whites  are  in 
some  states  dominated  by  the  loudest  and  most  violent  sec- 
tion of  their  own  race. 

Behind  this  whole  question  of  politics  and  of  office 
holding  stands  the  more  serious  question  whether  a  race 
which,  whatever  its  average  character,  contains  at  least 
two  million  intelligent  and  progressive  individuals,  shall 
be  wholly  shut  out  from  public  employment.  It  is  on  this 
question  that  President  Roosevelt  made  his  famous  decla- 
ration :  "  I  cannot  consent  to  take  the  position  that  the 
door  of  hope — the  door  of  opportunity — is  to  be  shut  upon 
any  man,  no  matter  how  worthy,  purely  upon  the  grounds 
of  race  or  color.  ...  It  is  a  good  thing  from  every 
standpoint  to  let  the  colored  man  know  that  if  he  shows  in 
marked  degree  the  qualities  of  good  citizenship — the  quali- 
ties which  in  a  white  man  we  feel  are  entitled  to  reward — 
then  he  will  not  be  cut  off  from  all  hope  of  similar  reward." 

The  discrimination  between  the  Negro  and  the  White 
has  nowhere  been  so  bitterly  contested  as  with  regard 
to  suffrage,  inasmuch  as  the  right  of  the  Negro  to  vote 
on  equal  terms  with  the  white  man  is  distinctly  set  forth 
in  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  of  the  Federal  Constitution, 
and  as  during  Reconstruction  the  Negro  had  full  suffrage 
in  all  the  Southern  states.  Without  going  into  the  history 


of  the  negro  vote,  it  may  be  worth  while  to  notice  that 
at  the  time  of  the  Revolution,  Negroes  who  had  the  prop- 
erty qualification  could  vote  in  all  the  thirteen  colonies 
except  two;  that  they  never  lost  that  franchise  in  Massa- 
chusetts and  some  other  Northern  communities,  and  that 
as  late  as  1835  about  a  thousand  of  them  had  the  ballot 
in  North  Carolina.  Then  in  Reconstruction  times  the 
suffrage  was  given  to  all  the  Negroes  in  the  country;  a 
process  of  which  one  of  the  most  bitter  enemies  of  the  race 
to-day  says :  "  To  give  the  negro  the  right  of  suffrage  and 
place  him  on  terms  of  absolute  equality  with  the  white 
man,  was  the  capital  crime  of  the  ages  against  the  white 
man's  civilization."  In  reality  the  North  bestowed  the 
suffrage  on  the  Negro  because  its  own  experience  seemed 
to  have  proved  that  the  ballot  was  an  instrument  of  civ- 
ilization— for  all  the  foreign  immigrants  had  grown  up 
to  it. 

Southerners  are  never  weary  of  describing  the  enormi- 
ties of  the  governments  based  on  negro  suffrage ;  as  a  mat- 
ter of  fact,  however,  nobody  North  or  South  knows  what 
would  have  been  the  result  of  negro  suffrage,  for  in  no 
state  longer  than  eight  years,  and  in  some  states  only 
about  three  years,  did  they  actually  cast  votes  that  de- 
termined the  choice  of  state  officers,  or  any  considerable 
number  of  local  officers.  Their  habit  of  voting  for  "  the 
regular  candidate,"  without  regard  to  his  fitness  or  charac- 
ter, was  not  peculiar  to  the  race  or  to  the  section.  Disfran- 
chisement  began  with  the  Ku  Klux  in  1870,  and  in  most 
ftates  the  larger  part  of  the  Negroes  at  once  lost  their 
ballots  because  driven  away  from  the  polls  by  violence 
or  terror.  The  only  community  in  which  they  were 
disfranchised  by  statute,  together  with  the  Whites,  was 
the  District  of  Columbia.  Then  came  the  era  of 

175 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

fraud,  the  use  of  tissue  ballots  and  falsified  electoral 
returns,  and  confusing  systems  of  ballot  boxes;  then, 
in  1890,  began  a  process  of  disfranchising  them  by  state 
constitutional  amendments  which  provided  qualifications 
especially  difficult  for  Negroes  to  meet:  for  instance,  spe- 
cial indulgence  was  given  to  men  who  served  in  the  Con- 
federate army,  or  whose  fathers  or  grandfathers  were 
entitled  to  vote  before  the  war.  This  movement  has  al- 
ready involved  six  states,  and  is  likely  to  run  through  every 
former  slaveholding  state. 

Even  the  comparatively  small  number  of  Negroes  who 
can  meet  the  requirements  of  tax,  education,  or  property 
find  trouble  in  registering,  or  in  voting.  In  Mississippi, 
where  there  were  nearly  200,000  colored  voters,  there  are 
now  16,000;  in  Alabama  about  5,000  are  registered  out  of 
100,000  men  of  voting  age.  Sometimes  they  are  simply 
refused  registration,  like  the  highly  educated  Negro  in 
Alabama,  who  was  received  by  the  official  with  the  re- 
mark :  "  Nigger,  get  out  of  here ;  this  ain't  our  day  for 
registering  niggers !  "  In  Beaufort  County,  S.  C.,  where, 
under  the  difficult  provisions  of  the  law,  there  are  about 
seven  hundred  negro  voters  and  about  five  hundred  Whites, 
somehow  the  white  election  officials  always  return  a  ma- 
jority for  their  friends;  and  in  the  presidential  election 
of  1908  the  hundred  thousand  negro  men  of  voting  age 
in  Sduth  Carolina  were  credited  with  only  twenty-five 
hundred  votes  for  Theodore  Roosevelt. 

It  has  puzzled  the  leaders  of  the  conventions  to  dis- 
franchise the  greater  part  of  the  Negroes  without  includ- 
ing te  some  of  our  own  people,"  and  yet  without  technically 
infringing  upon  the  Fifteenth  Amendment,  which  pro- 
hibits the  withdrawal  of  the  suffrage  on  account  of  race, 
color,  or  previous  condition  of  servitude;  but  they  have 

176 


KACE    SEPARATION 

been  successful.  As  a  Senator  from  North  Carolina  put 
it:  "The  disfranchising  amendment  would  disfranchise 
ignorant  negroes  and  not  disfranchise  any  white  man.  No 
white  man  in  North  Carolina  has  been  disfranchised  as 
a  result  of  this  amendment." 

It  is  impossible  not  to  feel  a  sympathy  with  the  desire 
of  the  South  to  be  free  from  an  ignorant  and  illiterate 
electorate;  there  is  not  a  Northern  state  in  which,  if  the 
conditions  were  the  same,  the  effort  would  not  be  made 
to  restrict  the  suffrage;  but  that  is  a  long  way  from  the 
Southern  principle  of  ousting  the  bad,  low,  and  illiterate 
Negro,  while  leaving  the  illiterate,  low,  and  bad  White; 
and  then,  in  the  last  resort,  shutting  out  also  the  good, 
educated,  and  capable  Negro.  For  there  is  not  a  state 
in  the  Lower  South  where  the  colored  vote  would  be  faith- 
fully counted  if  it  had  a  balance  of  power  between  two 
white  parties;  and  Senator  Tillman's  great  fear  at  present 
is  that  the  blacks  will  make  the  effort  to  come  up  to  these 
complicated  requirements,  and  then  must  be  disenfran- 
chised again.  Have  the  Southern  people  confidence  in 
their  own  race  superiority,  when  for  their  protection  from 
negro  domination  and  from  the  great  evil  of  amalgama- 
tion they  feel  it  necessary  to  take  such  precautions  against 
the  least  dangerous,  most  enterprising,  and  best  members 
of  the  negro  race?  Nevertheless,  the  practical  disenfran- 
chisement  of  the  Negroes  has  brought  about  a  political 
peace,  and  there  is  little  to  show  that  the  Negroes  resent 
their  exclusion. 

Whatever  the  divergences  of  feeling  in  the  South  on  the 
negro  question,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  Whites  are  a 
unit  on  the  two  premises  that  amalgamation  must  be  re- 
sisted, and  that  the  Negro  must  not  have  political  power. 
All  these  feelings  are  buttressed  against  a  passionate  ob- 

177 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

jection  to  race-mixture,  which  is  all  the  stronger  because 
so  much  of  it  is  going  on ;  it  branches  out  into  the  with- 
drawal of  the  suffrage,  not  because  the  South  is  in  any 
danger  of  negro  political  domination,  but  because  most 
Whites  think  no  member  of  an  inferior  race  ought  to  vote ; 
it  includes  many  restrictions  on  personal  relations  which 
seem  like  precautions  where  there  is  no  danger. 

Upon  these  main  issues  Northerners  may  share  some 
of  the  sentiments  of  the  South,  but  none  of  the  terrors. 
If  the  Negro  is  inferior,  it  does  not  need  so  many  acts  of 
the  legislature  to  prove  it;  if  amalgamation  is  going  on, 
it  is  due  to  the  white  race,  can  be  checked  by  the  white 
race,  and  by  no  one  else;  if  the  Negro  is  unintelligent, 
he  will  never,  under  present  conditions,  get  enough  votes 
to  affect  elections;  if  he  does  acquire  the  necessary  prop- 
erty and  education,  he  thereby  shows  that  he  does  not 
share  in  the  inferiority  of  his  race.  The  South  thinks 
about  the  Negro  too  much,  talks  about  him  too  much, 
abuses  him  too  much.  In  the  nature  of  things  there  is 
no  reason  why  the  superior  and  the  inferior  race  may  not 
live  side  by  side  indefinitely.  Is  the  Negro  powerful 
enough  to  force  his  standards  and  share  his  disabilities 
with  the  superior  white  man?  Is  it  not  as  the  Chinese 
sage  says :  "  The  superior  man  is  correctly  firm,  and  not 
firm  merely  .  .  .  what  the  superior  man  seeks  is  in  him- 
self." 

So  far  as  can  be  judged,  the  average  frame  of  mind 
in  the  South  includes  much  injustice,  and  unwillingness 
to  permit  the  negro  race  to  develop  up  to  the  measure  of 
its  limitations.  Here  the  experience  of  the  North  counts, 
for  it  has  many  elements  of  population  which  at  present 
are  inferior  to  the  average.  If  there  is  a  low  Italian  quar- 
ter in  a  city,  or  a  Slav  quarter,  or  a  Negro  quarter,  the 

178 


RACE    SEPARATION 

aim  of  the  Northern  community  is  to  give  those  people 
the  best  chance  that  they  can  appropriate.  Woe  to  the 
city  which  permits  permanent  centers  of  crime  and  degra- 
dation !  By  schools,  by  reformatory  legislation,  by  philan- 
thropic societies,  by  juvenile  courts,  by  missions,  by  that 
great  blessing,  the  care  of  neglected  children,  they  try  to 
bring  up  the  standard.  This  is  done  for  the  welfare  of 
the  community,  it  is  what  business  men  call  a  dollars  and 
cents  proposition.  If  a  man  or  child  has  three  fourths  of 
the  average  abilities,  the  North  tries  to  bring  him  to  the 
full  use  of  his  seventy-five  per  cent;  if  he  stands  at  150 
on  the  scale  of  100,  it  aims  to  give  him  the  opportunity 
to  use  his  superior  qualities. 

This  is  just  the  point  of  view  of  the  Southern  leaders 
who  are  fighting  for  justice  and  common  sense  toward  the 
Negro :  men  like  the  late  Chancellor  Hill,  of  the  University 
of  Georgia,  like  President  Alderman,  of  the  University 
of  Virginia,  like  Rev.  Edgar  Gardner  Murphy,  of  Mont- 
gomery; their  gospel  is  that,  notwithstanding  his  limita- 
tions, the  Negro  is  on  the  average  capable  of  higher  things 
than  he  is  doing,  and  that  the  gifted  members  of  the  race 
can  render  still  larger  services  to  their  own  color  and  to 
the  community.  That  is  what  Dr.  S,  C.  Mitchell,  of  Rich- 
mond College,  meant  when  he  said :  "  Friend,  go  up 
higher ! "  a  phrase  which  part  of  the  Southern  press  has 
unwarrantably  seized  upon  as  a  declaration  of  social 
equality. 

Every  friend  of  the  South  must  hope  that  that  en- 
lightened view  will  permeate  the  community;  but,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  a  very  considerable  number  of  people  of 
power  in  the  South,  legislators,  professional  men,  jour- 
nalists, ministers,  governors,  either  take  the  ground  that 
the  Negro  is  so  hopelessly  low  that  it  is  a  waste  of  effort 

179 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

to  try  to  raise  him ;  or  that  education  and  uplift  will  make 
him  less  useful  to  the  White,  and  therefore  he  shall  not 
have  it ;  or  that  you  cannot  give  to  the  black  man  a  better 
chance  without  bringing  danger  upon  the  white  man. 
Contrary  to  the  experience  of  mankind,  to  present  upward 
movement  in  what  has  been  a  very  low  white  element  in 
the  South,  and  to  the  considerable  progress  made  by  the 
average  Negro  since  slavery  days,  such  people  hold  that 
intelligence  and  education  do  nothing  for  the  actual  im- 
provement of  the  colored  race.  Since  the  Negro  is  low, 
they  would  keep  him  low;  since  they  think  him  danger- 
ous, they  wish  to  leave  him  dangerous;  their  policy  is  to 
make  the  worst  of  a  bad  situation ,  instead  of  trying  to 
improve  it. 

No  Northern  mind  can  appreciate  the  point  of  view 
of  some  men  who  certainly  have  a  considerable  following 
in  the  South.  Here,  for  instance,  is  Thomas  Dixon,  Jr., 
arguing  with  all  his  might  that  the  Negro  is  barely  hu- 
man, but  that  if  he  is  not  checked  he  will  become  such  an 
economic  competitor  of  the  white  man  that  he  will  have 
to  be  massacred.  He  protests  against  Booker  T.  Washing- 
ton's attempt  to  raise  the  Negro,  because  he  thinks  it  will 
be  successful.  Part,  at  least,  of  the  customary  and  statu- 
tory discriminations  against  the  Negro  which  have  already 
been  described  are  simply  an  expression  of  this  supposed 
necessity  of  keeping  the  Negro  down,  lest  he  should  rise 
too  far.  All  such  terrors  involve  the  humiliating  admis- 
sion that  the  Negro  can  rise,  and  that  he  will  rise  if  he  has 
the  opportunity. 


CHAPTEE    XIV 

CRIME   AND   ITS   PENALTIES 

SITTING  one  night  in  the  writing  room  of  a  country 
hotel  in  South  Carolina,  a  young  man  opposite,  with 
a  face  as  smooth  as  a  baby's  and  as  pretty  as  a  girl's, 
volunteered  to  tell  where  he  had  just  been,  a  discreditable 
tale.  It  soon  developed  that  his  business  was  the  sale  of 
goods  on  instalments,  chiefly  to  Negroes,  and  that  in  that 
little  town  of  Florence  he  had  no  less  than  five  hun- 
dred and  ninety  transactions  then  going  on;  that  his 
profits  were  about  fifty  per  cent  on  his  sales;  that  nine- 
teen twentieths  of  the  transactions  would  be  paid  up; 
but  that  sometimes  he  had  a  little  trouble  in  making 
collections. 

"  For  instance,  only  yesterday,"  said  he,  "  I  went  to 
a  nigger  woman's  house  where  they  had  bought  two  skirt 
patterns.  When  I  knocked  at  the  door,  a  little  girl  came, 
and  she  says :  '  Mammy  ain't  to  home,'  says  she,  but  I 
walked  right  in,  and  there  was  a  bigger  girl,  who  says, 
'  Mamma  has  gone  down  street,'  but  I  says,  *  I  know  bet- 
ter than  that,  you nigger ! '  And  I  pushed  right  into 

the  kitchen,  and  there  she  was  behind  the  door,  and  I 
walked  right  up  to  her,  and  I  says,  '  Do  you  think  I'll 

allow  you  to  teach  that  innocent  child  to  lie,  you  

nigger  ?    I'll  show  you,'  says  I ;  and  I  hit  her  a  couple  of 
good  ones  right  in  the  face.     She  come  back  at  me  with 

181 


THE    SOUTHERNT    SOUTH 

a  kind  of  an  undercut  right  under  the  jaw.  I  knew  it 
wouldn't  do  any  good  to  hit  her  on  the  head,  but  I  landed 
a  solid  one  in  the  middle  of  her  nose;  and  I  made  those 
women  go  and  get  those  skirts  and  give  them  up  before  I 
left  the  place." 

Once  entered  on  these  agreeable  reminiscences,  he  went 
on  in  language  the  tenor  of  whicli  is  fortified  by  a  memo- 
randum made  at  the  time.  "  But  that  isn't  a  circum- 
stance to  what  happened  three  weeks  ago  last  Tuesday. 
There's  a  nigger  in  this  town  that  bought  a  cravenette  coat 
from  us  for  thirteen  dollars  and  a  half.  It  costs  us  about 
nine  dollars,  but  he  only  paid  instalments  of  four  and  a 
half,  and  then,  for  about  six  months,  he  dodged  me;  but 
my  brother  and  I  saw  him  on  the  street,  and  I  jumped  out 
of  the  buggy  before  he  could  run  away,  and  says  I,  '  I 
want  you  to  pay  for  that  coat.'  He  had  it  on.  He  says, 
'  I  hain't  got  any  money.'  Says  it  sarcastic-like.  Well, 
of  course  I  wouldn't  take  any  lip  from  a  nigger  like  that, 
and  I  sailed  right  in.  I  hit  him  between  the  eyes,  and  he 
up  with  a  shovel  and  lambasted  me  with  the  flat  of 
it  right  between  the  shoulder-blades,  but  I  could  have  got 
away  with  him  all  right  if  his  wife  hadn't  have  come 
up  with  a  piece  of  board  and  caught  me  on  the  side;  my 
brother  jumped  right  out  of  the  buggy,  and  he  hit  her 
square  and  knocked  her  down,  and  we  had  a  regular  mix- 
up.  We  got  the  coat,  and  when  we  came  away,  we  left  the 
man  lying  senseless  on  the  ground."  "  But  don't  those 
people  ever  get  out  warrants  against  you  ?  "  "  Warrants 
against  me,  I  guess  not !  I  lay  in  bed  five  days,  and  when 
I  got  up,  my  brother  and  I  swore  out  warrants  against  the 
nigger  and  his  wife.  We  brought  them  up  in  court  and 
the  judge  fined  them  forty-seven  dollars,  and  he  says  to 
me,  '  All  the  fault  I  find  with  you  is  that  you  didn't  kill 

182 


CRIME   AND   ITS   PENALTIES 

the  double  adjective  nigger.  He's  the  worst  nigger  in 
town!'" 

With  all  allowances  for  the  lies  visibly  admixed  in  this 
unpleasant  tale,  it  undoubtedly  lifts  the  cover  off  a  kind 
of  thing  that  goes  on  every  day  between  the  superior  and 
the  inferior  races.  On  the  one  side  stand  the  negro  cus- 
tomers, shiftless,  extravagant,  slinking  away  from  their 
debts,  yet  doubtless  afterward  puffed  with  pride  to  be  able 
to  boast  that  they  had  a  knock-down  fight  with  a  white 
man  and  were  not  shot;  the  other  actor  in  this  drama  of 
race  hatred  could  not  even  claim  to  be  a  Poor  White;  he 
was  the  son  of  a  traveling  man,  had  some  education,  was 
successful  above  the  average,  and  until  he  began  to  talk 
about  himself  might  for  a  few  minutes  have  passed  as  a 
gentleman;  yet  to  save  a  loss  of  less  than  five  dollars,  and 
to  assert  his  superiority  of  race,  he  was  perfectly  willing 
to  put  Himself  on  the  level  of  the  lowest  Negro,  and  to 
engage  in  fisticuffs  with  a  woman. 

It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  this  thoroughgoing  black- 
guard is  a  spokesman  for  the  whole  South,  or  that  every 
local  court  inflicts  a  heavy  penalty  upon  black  people  for 
the  crime  of  having  been  thrashed  by  a  white  man.  The 
story  simply  illustrates  a  feeling  toward  the  Negroes  which 
is  widespread  and  potent  among  a  considerable  class  of 
Whites;  and  it  bears  witness  also  to  a  disposition  to  settle 
difficulties  between  members  of  the  two  races  by  the  logic 
of  hard  fists.  It  is  a  lurid  example  of  race  antagonism. 

No  section  of  the  Union  has  a  monopoly  of  violence  or 
injustice.  Men  as  coarse  and  brutal  as  the  man  encoun- 
tered in  South  Carolina  could  probably  be  found  in  every 
Northern  city.  Homicides  are  no  novelty  in  any  state  in 
the  Union,  and  it  is  as  serious  for  a  Northern  crowd  to  put 
a  man  to  death  because  somebody  calls  him  "  Scab  "  as 

183 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

for  an  equally  tigerish  Southern  mob  to  burn  a  Negro 
because  he  has  killed  a  white  man.  The  annals  of  strikes 
are  almost  as  full  of  ferocity  as  the  annals  of  lynching, 
and  it  would  be  hard  to  find  anything  worse  than  the  mur- 
der, in  1907,  of  some  watchmen  in  New  York  City  who 
were  thrown  down  a  building  by  striking  workmen,  who 
were  allowed  by  the  police  to  leave  the  building,  and  were 
never  brought  to  justice. 

Nevertheless,  there  is  in  the  North  a  strong  impression 
that  crime  is  on  a  different  footing  in  the  South;  that 
assaults,  affrays,  and  homicides  are  more  frequent;  that 
the  South  has  a  larger  crime  record  than  seems  reconcilable 
with  its  numerous  churches,  its  moral  standards,  and  its 
fairly  good  state  and  city  governments.  Light  may  be 
thrown  on  the  problem  of  race  relations  by  inquiring 
whether  the  South  is  as  much  shocked  by  certain  kinds 
of  crime  and  violence  as  the  North,  whether  a  criminal  is 
as  likely  to  be  tried  and  convicted,  whether  the  superior 
race,  by  its  practice  in  such  matters,  is  setting  before  the 
inferior  race  a  high  standard  of  conduct. 

Statistics  indicate  that  in  desperate  crimes  against  the 
person,  and  especially  in  murder,  the  South  far  surpasses 
other  civilized  countries,  and  other  parts  of  the  United 
States.  In  London,  with  a  population  of  6,500,000,  there 
were  in  a  year  24  homicides ;  4  of  the  criminals  committed 
suicide,  and  the  20  others  were  brought  to  justice.  In 
New  York  City,  with  about  two  thirds  the  population  of 
London,  there  were  331  homicides  with  only  61  indictments 
and  46  convictions.  In  the  state  of  South  Carolina,  with 
a  population  about  one  third  that  of  New  York  City,  there 
were  222  homicides  in  a  year,  and  not  a  single  execution 
of  a  white  man. 

Popular  phrases  and  the  press  in  the  South  habitually 
184 


CRIME    AND    ITS    PENALTIES 

put  a  gloss  upon  many  of  these  crimes  by  calling  them 
"duels";  but  a  careful  study  of  newspaper  cuttings  shows 
that  the  old-fashioned  affairs  of  honor  with  seconds  and 
exactly  similar  weapons,  measured  distance,  and  the  word 
to  fire,  have  almost  disappeared.  Nearly  all  the  affrays 
in  which  the  murdered  man  is  conscious  of  his  danger 
are  simply  street  fights,  in  which  each  man  lodges  in  the 
body  of  the  other  as  many  shots  as  he  can  before  he  him- 
self sinks  down  wounded.  It  can  hardly  be  considered 
an  affair  of  honor  when  Mr.  John  D.  Twiggs,  of  Albany, 
Ga.,  walks  through  the  streets  with  a  shotgun  loaded  with 
buckshot,  looking  for  Mr.  J.  B.  Palmer,  who  has  gone  home 
to  arm  himself. 

Even  this  uneven  kind  of  warfare  is  less  frequent  than 
the  outright  assassination  of  one  white  man  by  another. 
Where  was  Southern  chivalry  when  Gonzales,  the  editor 
of  the  Columbia  State,  was  in  1902  killed  in  the  open 
street  before  he  could  draw  his  pistol,  by  Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor  Tillman  of  South  Carolina,  about  whom  the  editor 
had  been  telling  unpleasant  truths?  Where  do  you  find 
the  high-toned  Southern  gentleman  when  a  man  walks  up 
to  a  total  stranger,  seizes  him,  and  with  the  remark,  "  You 
are  the  man  who  wanted  to  fight  me  last  night,"  plunges 
his  knife  into  the  victim's  back.  The  newspapers  are  full 
of  the  shooting  of  men  through  windows,  of  their  disap- 
pearance on  lonely  roads,  of  the  terror  that  walketh  by 
night,  and  the  pestilence  that  waiteth  at  noonday. 

Then  there  are  the  numerous  murders  of  friend  by 
friend,  on  all  kinds  of  frivolous  occasions ;  a  man  trespasses 
on  another  man's  land,  goes  to  apologize,  and  is  shot;  an- 
other makes  a  joke  which  his  friend  does  not  appreciate, 
and  there  is  nothing  for  it  but  pistols.  The  feeling  that 
a  man  must  assert  his  dignity  at  the  end  of  a  revolver 

185 


THE    SOUTHEBN    SOUTH 

was  revealed  in  New  Orleans  in  1908  when  Inspector 
Whittaker,  head  of  the  police,  with  five  of  his  men,  walked 
into  the  office  of  the  New  Orleans  World,  which  had  criti- 
cised his  enforcement  of  the  liquor  laws,  struck  the  edi- 
tor in  the  face  and  several  times  shot  at  him.  After  he 
had  taken  such  pains  to  vindicate  the  majesty  of  the  law, 
it  seems  a  hardship  that  his  superiors  compelled  the  In- 
spector to  resign.  There  is  hardly  a  part  of  the  civilized 
world  where  homicide  is  so  common  as  in  tbe  South,  and 
the  crime  is  quite  as  frequent  in  the  cities  as  in  the  back 
country.  Pitched  battles  by  white  men  with  policemen 
and  with  sheriffs  are  not  uncommon;  and  sometimes  three 
or  four  bodies  are  picked  up  after  such  a  fight. 

In  many  ways  this  unhappy  state  of  things  is  a  survival 
of  frontier  practices  which  once  were  common  in  the 
Northwest  as  well  as  in  the  South,  but  which  have  nearly 
disappeared  there  as  civilization  has  advanced;  but  in  the 
South  there  is  a  special  element  of  lawlessness  through 
the  Negroes.  One  of  the  few  advantages  of  slavery 
was  that  every  slaveholder  was  police  officer  and  judge 
and  jury  on  his  own  plantation;  petty  offenses  were  pun- 
ished by  the  overseer  without  further  ceremony,  serious 
crimes  were  easily  dealt  with,  and  the  escape  of  the  crim- 
inal was  nearly  impossible. 

Freedom,  with  its  opportunity  of  moving  about,  with 
its  greatly  enlarged  area  of  disputes  among  the  blacks,  and 
between  Whites  and  Negroes,  has  combined  with  the  in- 
fluence of  the  press  in  popularizing  crime,  and  perhaps 
with  an  innate  African  savagery,  to  make  the  black  crim- 
inal -a  terrible  scourge  in  the  South.  To  begin  with  the 
less  serious  offenses,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  Negro  has 
a  very  imperfect  realization  of  property  rights,  partly 
because  of  the  training  of  slavery.  The  vague  feeling  that 

186 


CEIME   AND   ITS   PENALTIES 

whatever  belonged  to  the  plantation  was  for  the  enjoyment 
of  those  who  lived  on  the  plantation  is  deliciously  ex- 
pressed by  Paul  Dunbar : 

Folks  ain't  got  no  right  to  censuah  othah  folks  about  dey 

habits ; 
Him  dat  giv'  de  squir'ls  de  bushtails  made  de  bobtails  fu' 

de  rabbits. 
Him  dat  built  de  gread  big  mountains  hollered  out  de  little 

valleys, 
Him  dat  made  de  streets  an'  driveways  wasn't  'shamed  to 

make  de  alleys. 

We  is  all  constructed  diff'ent,  d'  ain't  no  two  of  us  de  same; 
We  cain't  he'p  ouah  likes  an'  dislikes,  ef  we'se  bad  we  ain't 

to  blame. 
If  we'se  good,  we  needn't  show  off,  'case  you  bet  it  ain't 

ouah  doin' 
We  gits  into  su'ttain  channels  dat  we  jes'  cain't  he'p  pu'suin'. 

But  we  all  fits  into  places  dat  no  othah  ones  could  fill, 
An'  we  does  the  things  we  has  to,  big  er  little,  good  er  ill. 
John  cain't  tek  de  place  o'  Henry,  Su  an'  Sally  ain't  alike; 
Bass  ain't  nuthin'  like  a  suckah,  chub  ain't  nuthin'  like  a 
pike. 

When  you  come  to  think  about  it,  how  it's  all  planned  out, 

it's  splendid. 
Nuthin's  done  er  evah  happens,  'dout  hit's  somefin'  dat's 

intended ; 
Don't  keer  whut  you  does,  you  has  to,  an'  hit  sholy  beats 

de  dickens, — 
Viney,  go  put  on  de  kittle,  I  got  one  o'  mastah's  chickens. 

Not  so  genial  is  the  usual  relation  of  Negro  with  Negro ; 
both  in  town  and  city  there  is  an  amount  of  crude  and 
13  187 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

savage  violence  of  which  the  outside  world  knows  little, 
and  in  which  women  freely  engage.  Jealousy  is  a  fre- 
quent cause  of  fights  and  murders;  and  whisky  is  so  po- 
tent an  excitant  that  many  competent  observers  assert  that 
whisky  and  cocaine  are  at  the  bottom  of  almost  all  serious 
negro  crimes.  Practically  every  negro  man  carries  a  re- 
volver and  many  of  them  bear  knives  or  razors;  hence, 
once  engaged  in  a  fracas,  nobody  knows  what  will  happen. 
A  woman  describing  a  trouble  in  which  a  man  shot  her 
brother  was  chiefly  aggrieved  because  "  Two  ladies  jumped 
on  me  and  one  lady  bit  me/'  There  is  constant  negro  vio- 
lence against  the  Whites,  and  they  occasionally  engage  in 
pitched  battles  with  white  gangs. 

Here,  as  in  so  many  other  respects,  even  well-informed 
people  run  to  exaggeration.  Thus  President  Winston,  of 
the  North  Carolina  Agricultural  College,  declares  in  pub- 
lic that  the  Negroes  are  the  most  criminal  element  in  the 
population,  and  are  more  criminal  in  freedom  than  in 
slavery  (both  of  which  propositions  are  indisputable)  ;  that 
"  the  negro  is  increasing  in  criminality  with  fearful  rapid- 
ity " ;  that  "  the  negroes  who  can  read  and  write  are 
more  criminal  than  the  illiterate";  that  they  are  nearly 
three  times  as  criminal  in  the  Northeast  as  in  the  South; 
that  they  are  more  criminal  than  the  white  class,  and 
that  "more  than  seven  tenths  of  the  negro  criminals  are 
under  thirty  years  of  age."  This  statement,  like  almost  all 
the  discussions  of  criminal  statistics,  ignores  the  important 
point  that  as  communities  improve,  acts  formerly  not  cov- 
ered by  the  law  become  statutory  crimes;  and  hence  that 
the  more  civilized  a  state  the  more  likely  it  is  that  crim- 
inals will  be  convicted,  and  the  larger  will  be  the  apparent 
proportion  of  criminals.  In  Connecticut  are  enumerated 
68  white  juvenile  delinquents  to  100,000  people,  in  Georgia 

188 


CRIME    AND    ITS    PENALTIES 

only  four,  but  the  Georgia  boys  are  not  seventeen  times  as 
good  as  their  brothers  in  the  Northern  state.  It  further 
overlooks  the  fact  that  most  criminals  of  all  races  are 
under  thirty  years  of  age,  for  crime  is  the  accompaniment  of 
youth  with  white  men  as  with  Negroes. 

To  say  that  the  Negroes  furnish  more  than  their  pro- 
portion of  criminals  is  no  more  than  to  say  that  the  lowest 
element  in  the  population  has  the  lowest  and  most  criminal 
members.  The  excessive  criminality  of  the  Negroes,  which 
is  marked  in  all  the  states  of  the  Union,  is  of  course  a 
mark  of  their  average  inferiority,  and  a  measure  of  the 
difficulty  of  bringing  them  up  to  a  high  standard ;  and  the 
proportion  is  often  exaggerated.  In  South  Carolina  where 
the  Negroes  are  three  fifths  of  the  population  they  furnish 
only  four  fifths  of  the  convicts.  As  for  the  assertion  that 
the  educated  Negroes  are  specially  criminal,  the  statement 
is  contradicted  by  the  records  of  the  large  institutions  of 
negro  education,  and  by  the  experience  of  thousands  of 
people.  Education  does  not  necessarily  make  virtue,  but 
it  is  a  safeguard.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  white  Southerners 
in  general  know  little  of  the  lives  or  motives  of  thousands 
of  the  immense  noncriminal  class  of  Negroes,  with  whom 
they  have  no  personal  relations;  but  are  wide  awake  to 
the  iniquities  of  the  educated  men  who  fall  into  crime. 

The  experience  of  two  centuries  shows  that  the  Negroes 
are  not  drawn  to  crimes  requiring  previous  organization 
and  preparation;  no  slave  insurrection  has  ever  been  a 
success  within  the  boundaries  of  the  United  States;  and 
blacks  are  rarely  found  in  gangs  of  bandits.  The  incen- 
diarism of  which  there  is  now  so  much  complaint  is  prob- 
ably the  expression  of  individual  vengeance.  The  Negroes, 
according  to  the  testimony  of  those  nearest  to  them,  are 
inveterate  gamblers,  and  many  affrays  result  from  conse- 

189 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

quent  quarrels,  so  that  murders  may  be  most  frequent  wkere 
there  is  the  best  employment  and  largest  wages  and  great- 
est prosperity  among  the  thrifty.  Murder,  manslaughter, 
and  attempts  to  kill  make  up  three  quarters  of  the  recorded 
crimes  of  the  blacks  in  the  Mississippi  Delta.  Murders  of 
Negroes  by  Negroes  are  very  common  and  many  of  the 
criminals  escape  altogether. 

Negro  crime  is  much  fomented  by  the  low  drinking- 
shops  in  the  city  and  in  country,  by  the  lack  of  home  in- 
fluence on  growing  boys  and  girls,  by  the  brutalizing  of 
young  people  who  are  sent  to  prison  with  hardened  crim- 
inals, and  in  general,  by  close  contact  with  the  lowest 
element  of  the  white  race,  which  leads  to  crimes  on  both 
sides.  It  is  a  striking  fact  that  where  the  Africans  are 
most  numerous  there  is  the  least  complaint  of  crime.  The 
so-called  race  riots  are  usually  rows  between  a  few  bad 
Negroes  and  the  officers  of  the  law,  or  a  group  of  aggrieved 
Whites.  Fights  with  policemen  and  sheriffs  are  frequent, 
and  desperate  men  not  infrequently  barricade  themselves 
in  houses,  and  sell  their  lives  as  dearly  as  they  can.  Quar- 
rels over  the  settlement  of  accounts  are  not  uncommon, 
and  the  Negro  who  feels  himself  cheated  sometimes  takes 
his  revenge  at  the  end  of  a  gun.  As  weapons  are  ordinarily 
sold  without  the  slightest  check,  to  men  of  both  races  and 
of  every  age,  there  is  never  any  lack  of  the  means  to  kill. 

Occasionally  a  cry  is  raised  that  proof  has  been  found 
of  the  existence  of  "  Before  Day  Clubs  " — that  is,  of  organ- 
izations of  Negroes  for  purposes  of  violence.  The  thing  is 
possible  and  difficult  to  disprove,  but  a  sequence  of  crimes 
through  such  an  organization  seems  alien  to  the  Negro's 
habits,  and  is  at  least  unlikely.  The  serious  charges  that 
the  blacks  habitually  protect  any  negro  criminal  who  comes 
to  them  will  be  considered  farther  on. 

190 


CRIME    AND    ITS    PENALTIES 

The  negro  crime  about  which  Southern  newspapers 
print  most,  Southern  writers  say  most,  and  which  more  than 
anything  else  aggravates  race  hatred,  is  violence  to  white 
women.  The  crime  is  a  dreadful  one,  made  worse  by  the 
spreading  abroad  of  details,  but  it  has  such  a  fateful  rela- 
tion to  the  whole  Southern  problem  that  something  must 
here  be  said,  less  on  the  thing  itself  than  on  some  of  the 
common  misunderstandings  and  misstatements  which  clus- 
ter about  it. 

Statistics  are  unfortunately  too  available,  inasmuch  as 
for  twenty  years  the  number  of  such  crimes  has  been  nearly 
balanced  by  the  number  of  lynchings  for  that  offense, 
which  have  been  tabulated  from  year  to  year  by  the  Chi- 
cago Tribune,  and  have  been  thoroughly  analyzed  by  Pro- 
fessor Cutler  in  his  recent  book  "  Lynch  Law."  From  1882 
to  1903  these  statistics  show  an  average  of  thirty-two  lynch- 
ings per  year  for  violence  or  attempted  violence  to  white 
women,  though  of  late  they  have  been  reduced  to  under 
twenty.  This  includes  some  cases  of  innocent  men,  prob- 
ably balanced  by  assailants  who  escaped.  These  figures 
completely  dispose  of  the  allegation  that  the  crime  is  very 
frequent.  Contrary  to  common  belief  in  the  North,  some 
such  cases  are  tried  before  regular  courts ;  and  in  Missouri 
the  Governor  in  1908  very  properly  refused  to  pardon  a 
Negro  under  a  sentence  of  death  for  that  crime.  Adding 
in  these  cases,  and  the  half  dozen  which  perhaps  escaped 
the  newspaper  reporter,  at  the  utmost  there  are  not  over 
fifty  authenticated  instances  of  this  crime  in  the  whole 
South  in  a  twelvemonth.  Among  something  like  3,000,000 
adult  negro  males  the  ratio  of  the  crime  to  those  who  might 
commit  it  is  about  1  to  600,000;  and  out  of  6,000,000 
white  women,  not  over  fifty  become  victims,  or  1  in  120,- 
000.  For  this  degree  of  danger  to  white  women  ten  million 

191 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

human  beings  are  supposed  to  be  sodden  with  crime  and 
actuated  by  malice,  and  the  whole  South  from  end  to  end 
is  filled  with  terror. 

The  allegation  frequently  made  that  these  crimes  are 
committed  by  highly  educated  Negroes,  graduates  of 
Hampton  and  Tuskegee,  is  absolutely  without  foundation. 
Most  of  them  are  by  men  of  the  lowest  type,  some  un- 
doubtedly maniacs.  Most  of  these  occurrences  take  place 
where  the  Whites  and  Negroes  are  most  closely  brought  into 
juxtaposition,  sometimes  where  they  are  both  working  in 
the  fields.  Hence  they  are  of  rare  occurrence  where  the 
Whites  are  fewest  and  the  Negroes  most  numerous.  In 
many  places  in  the  Black  Belt,  white  people  have  no  fear 
of  leaving  their  families,  because  sure  that  their  negro 
neighbors  would  give  their  lives,  if  necessary,  for  the  pro- 
tection of  the  white  women.  The  Northern  white  teachers, 
who  are  accused  of  arousing  in  the  Negro's  mind  the  belief 
that  he  is  the  equal  of  the  Whites,  have  never  in  a  single 
instance  been  attacked;  and  in  communities  where  the 
Negroes  are  literally  fifty  to  one,  have  not  the  slightest 
fear  of  going  about  alone  at  any  necessary  hour  of  day  or 
night. 

These  statements  are  not  intended  to  minimize  the 
dreadful  effects  of  a  crime  which  brings  such  wretchedness 
upon  the  innocent.  The  two  worst  enemies  of  the  white 
woman  in  the  South  are  "  The  Black  Brute,"  whom  the 
Southern  press  is  never  tired  of  describing  in  unrepeatable 
terms,  and  the  white  buzzard  journalist  who  spreads  her 
name  and  her  dreadful  story  abroad  to  become  the  seed  of 
another  like  crime.  Where  is  the  Southern  chivalry  and 
respect  for  white  women  when  every  such  crime  is  sought 
out  and  flashed  abroad,  in  all  the  details  obtainable,  and 
the  victim  is  doomed  to  a  second  wrong  in  the  lifelong 

192 


CRIME    AND    ITS    PENALTIES 

feeling  that  she  is  known  and  branded  throughout  the 
land? 

A  general  and  well-grounded  complaint  is  that  any  fugi- 
tive, no  matter  what  his  reason  for  flight,  even  though  he 
is  guilty  of  rape,  is  fed  and  sent  on  his  way  by  his  own 
people,  a  practice  which  goes  back  to  slavery  days  when 
there  were  many  strays  whose  only  offense  was  a  love  of 
liberty.  "  The  worst  feature,"  says  an  observer,  "  is  that 
other  negroes  help  to  conceal  them  and  their  crimes.  They 
seem  to  have  entered  into  a  racial  agreement  that  they 
must  help  each  one  of  their  race  to  escape  the  penalties  of 
the  white  man's  law  by  resorting  to  every  artifice  of  un- 
truthfulness  and  concealment."  Judge  Cann,  of  Georgia, 
charges  that  "  as  a  race,  negroes  shelter,  conceal  and  pro- 
tect the  criminals  of  their  race;  that  they  produce  riots 
by  attacking  officers  of  the  law  while  in  the  discharge  of 
their  duty ;  that  they  openly  show  sympathy  with  the  negro 
criminal;  that  they  conspire  against  the  enforcement  of 
law;  that  they  have  made  first  a  hero,  and  then  a  martyr, 
of  a  legally  convicted  and  executed  murderer." 

Like  all  such  general  statements,  these  allegations  go  too 
far.  In  the  first  place,  it  is  not  altogether  a  sentiment  of 
race  solidarity.  Negroes  have  been  known  to  give  similar 
shelter  to  white  vagabonds  and  criminals.  In  the  second 
place,  black  criminals  are  frequently  apprehended  through 
blacks,  and  large  numbers  are  brought  into  court,  tried 
and  convicted,  entirely  on  negro  testimony.  Something 
has  been  done  in  the  way  of  negro  Law  and  Order  Asso- 
ciations, which  pledge  themselves  to  give  up  criminals. 
Still,  it  is  discomposing  to  know  that  when  a  search  was 
making  for  a  particularly  odious  fellow  in  Monroe,  La., 
who  had  for  a  year  or  two  made  himself  the  nuisance 
of  the  neighborhood  by  looking  into  windows,  his  father 

193 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

and  brothers,  who  must  have  known  his  practices,  un- 
hesitatingly signed  such  a  law-and-order  pledge.  The 
Brownsville  incident  of  1907  also,  with  the  apparent  deter- 
mination of  scores  of  men  not  to  "  split "  on  some  ruffians 
and  murderers  among  them,  produced  a  painful  feeling 
throughout  the  country.  In  few  respects  could  the  Negroes 
do  so  much  good  for  themselves  as  by  helping  in  the  de- 
tection of  the  crime  of  their  own  people. 

If  Negroes  are  violent  to  Whites  and  among  themselves, 
they  follow  an  example  daily  and  hourly  set  them  by  the 
members  of  the  Superior  Race.  In  the  first  place,  the  Ne- 
gro listens  habitually  to  rough  and  humiliating  language. 
You  get  a  new  view  of  race  relations  when  a  planter  in  his 
store  on  Saturday  night  calls  up  for  you  one  after  another 
three  specimen  Negroes.  "  This  man  Chocolate,"  he  says, 
"  is  a  full-blooded  nigger,  the  real  thing."  "  Chocolate  " 
says  nothing,  shrugs  his  shoulders,  and  looks  as  he  feels, 
literally  like  the  devil.  The  next  is  introduced  as  "  One 
of  your  mixed  ones — How  did  that  come  about,  hey ! " 
and  the  mulatto,  who  has  been  the  official  whipper  on  the 
plantation,  grins  at  the  superior  man's  joke.  The  third  is 
called  up  and  presented  as  "  The  Preacher,  very  fond  of 
the  sisters."  This  is  a  fair  sample  of  what  constantly 
takes  place  wherever  there  is  a  rough,  coarse  white  man 
among  Negroes. 

The  office  of  the  whipper  is  usually  performed  by  the 
master  himself,  if  he  is  one  of  those  numerous  employers 
who  believe  in  that  method.  As  one  such  put  it :  "I  follow 
up  a  hand  and  tell  him  to  do  what  he  ought  ?  If  he  won't, 
I  just  get  off  and  whip  him."  "  Suppose  he  summons  you 
before  a  magistrate?"  "I  lick  him  again  before  the 
magistrate  and  send  him  home."  Other  planters  have 
given  up  whipping  and  charge  a  fine  against  the  Negro's 

194 


CRIME    AND   ITS    PENALTIES 

account.  Of  course  such  fellows  would  rather  be  whipped 
than  prosecuted,  and  think  that  the  riders  (that  is,  the 
overseers),  if  they  once  take  it  out  of  them  in  a  thrashing, 
will  harbor  no  further  malice.  In  some  states,  as  North 
Carolina,  whipping  is  unusual ;  in  others  it  is  frequent. 

Another  race  trouble  is  the  driving  out  of  blacks  who 
make  themselves  disliked  by  the  Whites.  A  Negro  passes 
an  examination  for  post  office  clerk,  but  is  warned  that 
if  he  tries  to  take  the  place  he  will  be  shot.  A  colored 
editor,  whose  paper  is  much  less  offensive  than  tfny  of  the 
white  journals  in  his  neighborhood  in  bad  language  and 
incitement  to  crime,  is  thought  well  treated  because  he 
leaves  the  state  alive.  A  Negro  who  is  too  conspicuous, 
who  builds  a  house  thought  to  be  above  his  station,  who 
drives  two  horses  in  his  buggy,  may  be  warned  to  leave 
the  place;  and  if  he  refuses  to  sacrifice  his  little  property, 
may  be  shot.  A  black  doctor  may  be  warned  out  of  the 
county  because  there  are  enough  white  doctors.  The  South 
is  not  the  only  community  where  people  that  are  obnoxious 
are  hustled  out  of  town,  and  Southern  Whites  sometimes 
receive  the  same  unofficial  "  ticket  of  leave  " ;  but  it  makes 
bad  blood  when  irresponsible  people,  often  in  no  way  su- 
perior in  character  to  the  Negroes  whom  they  assail,  up- 
root their  neighbors. 

Then  comes  the  long  list  of  homicides  of  Negroes  by 
Whites.  Ever  since  Ku  Klux  times  there  have  been  oc- 
casional instances  of  "  whitecapping  " — that  is,  of  bodies  of 
disguised  men  riding  through  the  country,  pulling  people 
out  of  their  houses  and  whipping  them.  Such  practices 
are  not  confined  to  the  South  and  are  condoned  sometimes 
in  the  North.  Down  on  Buzzard's  Bay  in  Massachusetts 
a  few  years  ago  a  jury  absolutely  refused  to  convict  the 
perpetrators  of  a  similar  outrage  on  a  white  man;  while 

195 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

in  Alabama,  in  1898,  five  Whites  were  sentenced  for  twenty 
years  each  for  killing  a  Negro  in  that  sort  of  way.  Still 
convictions  of  white  men  for  killing  Negroes  are  very  un- 
usual. Since  practically  every  adult  negro  man  has  a  gun 
about  him,  the  theory  of  the  White  is  that  if  you  get  into 
a  quarrel  and  the  Negro  makes  any  movement  with  his 
hands,  you  must  shoot  him  forthwith.  To  this  purport  is 
the  testimony  of  a  Mississippi  planter  who  reproved  a  hand 
for  severely  whipping  his  child;  the  black  replied  that  it 
was  his  business  and  nobody  should  stop  it;  the  white 
man  said  he  would  stop  it ;  whereupon  the  Negro  drew,  but 
was  met  by  a  bullet  in  his  forehead;  and,  explained  the 
planter,  "  A  steel  bullet  will  go  through  a  nigger's  skull." 
Take  another  case:  An  assistant  manager  on  an  estate  in 
the  Delta  of  Mississippi  tried  to  take  a  pistol  away  from 
a  new  hand  and  felt  himself  safe  because  the  man  had  his 
hands  in  his  pockets ;  but  the  Negro  fired  through  the 
pocket,  instantly  killed  the  white  man,  and  decamped.  It 
afterwards  was  shown  that  he  had  previously  killed  another 
white  man. 

The  responsibility  is  not  always  on  the  Negro's  side. 
There  are  many  disputes  over  labor  contracts,  in  which  the 
Negro  justly  believes  that  the  white  man  has  cheated  him, 
and  his  attempt  to  audit  is  stopped  by  a  quarrel  in  which 
the  black  is  killed.  Even  boys  under  twelve  years  of  age 
have  been  known  to  shoot  Negroes  over  trivial  disputes, 
and  a  young  lady  in  Washington  recently  shot  and  killed 
a  black  boy  who  was  stealing  fruit.  The  Negroes  complain 
of  harsh  treatment  by  the  police.  For  instance,  a  good- 
looking,  very  black  young  man  is  glad  to  get  out  of 
Savannah  and  among  the  white  people  on  the  Sea  Islands. 
"  They  like  the  colored  people  better ;  even  if  they  do  get 
drunk  and  are  fierce,  they  treat  them  better.  In  Savannah 

196 


CRIME    AND    ITS    PENALTIES 

the  other  day  I  saw  a  man  going  back  to  his  vessel,  and  a 
policeman  asked  him  where  he  was  going.  He  answered 
up  rough  like, — I  wouldn't  do  that,  I'd  go  down  on  my 
hands  and  knees  to  'em  rather  than  have  any  trouble  with 
em, — and  the  policeman  broke  his  club  over  his  head,  ar- 
rested him,  and  they  sent  him  to  the  chain  gang.  I  don't 
want  to  be  arrested ;  I  never  have  been  arrested  in  my  life." 
That  the  police  are  often  in  the  wrong  is  shown  by  such 
instances  as  the  recent  acquittal  of  a  Negro  by  direction  of 
an  Alabama  judge;  he  had  shot  a  policeman  who  was  ar- 
resting him  without  reason,  and  the  judge  who  heard  the 
case  justified  him. 

Perhaps,  comparing  city  with  city,  the  North  is  as  dis- 
orderly as  the  South,  but  the  rural  South  is  a  much  more 
desperate  region  than  the  farming  lands  of  the  North,  as 
is  shown  by  the  statistics  of  homicide  and  similar  crimes. 
In  Florida  in  1899,  with  a  population  of  528,000,  there 
were  about  40  murders  and  200  assaults  with  attempt  to 
murder.  In  Alabama  in  1895-96  there  were  about  350 
homicides.  In  one  twelvemonth  some  years  ago  there 
were  6  murders  in  Vermont,  96  in  Massachusetts,  461  in 
Alabama,  and  over  1,000  in  Texas.  Judge  Thomas,  of 
Montgomery,  has  shown  that  the  homicides  in  the  United 
States  per  million  of  population  are  129  against  10  per 
million  in  England ;  and  when  the  sections  are  contrasted, 
New  England  has  about  47  per  million,  against  223  per 
million  in  the  South. 

It  is  not  easy  to  compare  the  criminal  spirit  in  the  North 
and  the  South  by  the  records  of  the  courts  or  the  statistics 
of  convictions ;  acts  which  are  penitentiary  offenses  in  one 
state  may  be  misdemeanors,  or  no  crime  at  all,  in  another. 
A  very  recent  tabulation,  made  from  statistics  of  1905, 
shows  in  the  Lower  South  16,000  prisoners  against  13,000 

197 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

in  a  group  of  Northwestern  states  having  the  same  total 
population;  and  in  the  whole  South,  27,000  prisoners 
against  24,000  in  a  group  aggregating  the  same  number  of 
people  in  the  North  and  West.  Of  the  Southern  pris- 
oners, about  two  thirds  are  Negroes,  the  proportion  of 
criminals  to  the  total  numbers  of  the  African  race  being 
decidedly  less  than  in  the  North.  The  only  safe  generali- 
zation from  those  statistics  is  therefore  that  the  Southern 
courts  send  more  people  to  jail,  white  and  black,  than  the 
Northern.  Statistics  throw  little  light  on  the  question  of 
relative  crime. 

A  comparison  is,  however,  possible  between  the  ordinary 
course  of  justice  in  the  South  and  in  the  North.  The  most 
notorious  defect  in  the  South  is  the  conduct  of  murder 
trials,  as  shown  by  the  evidence  of  Southern  jurists.  Says 
one,  "  Unreasoning  and  promiscuous  danger  stalks  in  any 
community  where  life  is  held  cheap  by  even  a  few,  and 
where  the  laws  are  enforced  by  privilege  or  race.  In  such 
a  community  there  is  no  sufficient  defense  against  a  mob, 
or  even  a  drunken  fool."  If  one  credited  all  the  editorials 
in  Southern  newspapers,  he  would  believe  that  "  a  man  who 
kills  a  man  in  this  community  is  in  much  less  danger  of 
legal  punishment  than  one  who  steals  a  suit  of  clothes  " ; 
and  experienced  lawyers  tell  you  that  they  never  knew  of  a 
white  man  being  convicted  for  homicide. 

These  statements  are  exaggerations,  for  the  records 
of  pardons  show  that  a  certain  number  of  white  men  have 
reached  the  penitentiary  for  that  offense  and  leave  it  by 
the  side  door.  The  reason  for  the  failure  of  justice  in 
numerous  cases  is,  first  of  all,  the  technicalities  of  the 
courts,  which  are  probably  not  very  different  in  that  par- 
ticular from  those  of  the  North;  and,  secondly,  the  un- 
willingness of  juries  to  convict.  It  must  be  accepted  as 

198 


CRIME   AND   ITS   PENALTIES 

an  axiom  that  the  average  plain  man  in  the  South  feels 
that  if  A  kills  B  the  presumption  is  that  he  has  some 
good  reason.  Counsel  for  such  cases  habitually  appeal  to 
the  emotions  of  the  jury,  and  ask  what  they  would  have 
done  under  like  circumstances.  Even  conviction  may  not 
be  uncomforable ;  take  the  case  of  a  young  White  in 
Florida,  who  killed  a  policeman,  was  sentenced  to  eighteen 
months'  imprisonment,  was  then  hired  out  as  a  convict  by 
his  uncle  at  fifteen  dollars  a  month,  and  paraded  the  streets 
at  his  pleasure. 

A  general  impression  in  the  North  is  that  the  South- 
ern courts  are  very  severe  with  colored  men;  and  (if  he  has 
not  already  been  lynched)  it  is  true  that  they  are  likely 
to  pass  heavy  sentence  on  a  Negro  who  has  killed  a  white 
man,  and  juries  are  often  merciless;  but  there  are 
many  cases  where  blacks  are  lightly  treated  on  the  ex- 
press ground  that  they  have  had  less  opportunity  to  know 
what  is  right  and  wrong.  In  Brookhaven,  Miss.,  a  very 
rough  region,  in  a  year  three  white  men  have  been  heavily 
sentenced  for  killing  Negroes;  while  many  cases  could  be 
cited  where  a  Negro  was  acquitted  or  let  off  with  a  light 
penalty  for  a  like  offense. 

When  it  comes  to  less  serious  crimes,  the  Negro  enjoys 
a  special  protection  whenever  he  can  call  in  a  respectable 
white  man  to  vouch  for  him  as  in  general  straightforward ; 
the  Court  is  then  likely  to  impose  a  light  sentence.  Even 
in  serious  cases  a  man  is  sometimes  acquitted  or  lightly 
treated  at  the  request  of  his  master,  so  that  he  may  re- 
turn to  work.  That  is  what  the  planter  meant  who 
boasted :  "  I  never  sent  a  nigger  to  jail  in  my  life ;  and 
I  have  taken  more  niggers  out  of  jail  than  any  planter 
in  Alabama/'  That  is,  he  never  gave  information  against 
one  of  his  own  hands,  but  inflicted  such  small  penalties 

199 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

as  he  saw  fit;  and  he  would  pay  the  fine  for  his  men  who 
came  before  the  courts,  or  even  secure  their  pardon,  so 
as  to  get  them  on  his  plantation.  That  principle  some- 
times goes  terribly  deep.  In  the  case  of  a  Negro  who 
whipped  his  child  to  death,  the  natural  inquiry  was, 
"What  did  they  do  with  him?"  To  which  the  noncha- 
lant answer  was,  "  Oh,  nothing,  he  was  a  good  cotton 
hand." 

The  great  majority  of  negro  convicts  are  sentenced  for 
petty  crimes,  stealing,  vagrancy,  and  the  like,  and  for 
rather  short  terms;  but  the  name  for  this  punishment, 
"  the  chain  gang,"  points  to  a  system  practically  unknown 
in  the  North.  There  are  literal  chain  gangs,  with  real 
shackles  and  balls,  working  in  the  streets  of  cities,  white 
and  black  together;  and  large  bodies  of  convicts  are 
worked  in  the  open,  stockaded,  and  perhaps  literally 
chained  at  night.  Eight  here  comes  in  one  of  the  worst 
features  of  the  Southern  convict  system.  The  men  on  the 
chain  gang  are  perhaps  employed  on  city  or  county  work, 
and  if  their  terms  expire  too  fast,  the  authorities  will  run 
out  of  labor;  hence,  the  Negroes  believe,  perhaps  rightly, 
that  judges  and  juries  are  convinced  of  their  guilt  just  in 
proportion  to  the  falling  off  of  the  number  of  men  in  con- 
finement; and  that  if  necessary,  innocent  people  will  be 
arrested  for  that  purpose.  That  is  probably  one  reason 
why  Negroes  feel  so  little  shame  at  having  been  in  prison. 
"  Did  you  know  I  was  in  the  barracks  last  night  ?  "  is  a 
remark  that  you  may  hear  at  any  railroad  station  in 
Georgia. 

The  whole  subject  is  complicated  with  vagrant  laws. 
For  instance,  in  Savannah  Negroes  not  at  work,  or  with- 
out reasonable  excuse  for  idleness,  shall  be  arrested;  and 
in  Alabama  if  arrested  as  a  vagrant  the  burden  of  proof 

200 


CRIME    AND   ITS    PENALTIES 

is  on  the  black  to  show  that  he  is  at  work.  It  is  a  mistake 
to  suppose  that  colored  tramps  are  common  in  the  South ; 
but  irresponsible  men,  loitering  about  a  city  and  sponging 
on  the  working  Negroes,  are  frequent,  and  furnish  many 
serious  criminals. 

On  the  whole,  one  would  rather  not  be  a  negro  convict 
in  a  Southern  state,  or  even  a  white  convict,  for  many 
state  and  county  prisons  are  simply  left-over  examples  of 
the  worst  side  of  slavery.  A  Northern  expert  in  such  mat- 
ters in  Atlanta  a  few  years  ago,  in  a  public  address,  con- 
gratulated the  people  on  the  new  jail  which  he  had  just 
visited.  At  least  it  looked  like  the  most  improved  of  mod- 
ern jails,  for  it  had  large  airy  cells  provided  with  running 
water,  and  the  only  defect  in  it  was  that  it  was  intended 
for  the  state  mules  and  was  far  better  than  any  provision 
made  there  for  human  prisoners. 

The  first  trouble  with  the  Southern  convict  system  is 
that  it  still  retains  the  notion,  from  which  other  com- 
munities began  to  diverge  nearly  a  century  ago,  that  the 
prisoner  is  the  slave  of  the  state,  existing  only  for  the 
convenience  and  profit  of  those  whom  he  serves.  In  the 
second  place,  it  has  been  difficult  to  find  indoor  employ- 
ment for  the  men,  and  most  of  them  are  worked  out  of 
doors,  a  life  which  with  proper  precautions  is  undoubtedly 
happier  and  healthier  than  that  inside.  In  the  third 
place,  whipping  is  still  an  ordinary  penalty,  and  very  fre- 
quently applied.  Furthermore,  a  number  of  states  in  the 
Lower  South  have  been  in  the  habit  of  letting  out  convicts, 
and  that  is  still  done  in  several  states,  as  Florida,  Alabama, 
and  Georgia.  They  used  to  be  rented  to  cotton  growers, 
and  a  planter  could  get  as  few  as  two  convicts  or  even  one, 
over  whom  he  had  something  approaching  the  power  of  life 
and  death.  This  was  a  virtual  chattel  slavery,  which  long 

201 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

ago  ought  to  have  been  disallowed  by  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States,  as  contrary  to  the  Thirteenth  Amend- 
ment. If  still  retained  on  a  state  or  county  plantation,  the 
convicts  are  in  the  power  of  wardens  whose  interest  it  is 
to  drive  the  men  unmercifully.  Governor  Vardaman  in  a 
public  message  in  1908  thought  it  necessary  to  say  that 
"  Some  of  the  most  atrocious  and  conscienceless  crimes  that 
have  been  perpetrated  in  this  State  are  chargeable  to  the 
county  contractor.  I  have  known  the  poor  convict  driven 
to  exhaustion  or  whipped  to  death  to  gratify  the  greed  or 
anger  of  the  conscienceless  driver  or  contractor.  The  tears 
and  blood  of  hundreds  of  these  unfortunate  people  cry  out 
for  this  reform." 

The  Governor  suggests  that  white  men  suffer  under 
this  system,  and  there  have  been  recent  cases  where  va- 
grant "Whites  were  sold  on  the  auction  block  for  a  period 
of  months.  It  might  perhaps  be  argued  that  the  South 
is  always  more  stern  in  its  judicial  punishments  than  the 
North,  inasmuch  as  five  years  on  a  convict  farm  in  Mis- 
sissippi is  worse  than  being  decently  hanged  in  Massachu- 
setts. The  modern  and  humane  methods  of  reform,  of 
separating  the  youthful  first-term  man  from  the  others, 
of  specially  treating  juvenile  crime,  are  little  known  in 
the  South.  When  a  twelve-year-old  black  boy  is  sent 
to  the  chain  gang  by  a  white  judge,  the  community  suf- 
fers. With  regard  to  all  those  penal  institutions  one  might 
share  the  feelings  of  the  good  Northern  lady,  when  told 
that  her  grandson  had  been  sentenced  to  the  penitentiary 
for  ten  years :  "  What  did  they  do  that  for  ?  why,  he  won't 
be  contented  there  three  weeks !  " 

This  sympathy  with  the  criminal  the  governors  of  the 
Southern  states  appear  to  feel,  as  is  shown  by  some  as- 
tonishing statistics.  When  Governor  Vardaman  went  out 

202 


CRIME    AND   ITS    PENALTIES 

of  office  January  1,  1908,  he  pardoned  8  white  men  and  18 
Negroes,  most  of  them  convicted  of  murder  or  manslaugh- 
ter, and  11  of  them  life  men.  A  Memphis  paper  has  tabu- 
lated  the  state  pardons  for  a  period  of  twelve  months, 
and  if  the  results  are  accurate,  they  show  1  in  Wisconsin, 
22  in  Massachusetts,  81  in  Georgia,  168  in  Alabama,  and 
over  400  in  Arkansas.  Just  how  the  Negroes  get  sufficient 
political  influence  to  secure  pardons  is  one  of  the  serious 
questions  in  Southern  jurisprudence.  For  these  lavish  par- 
dons the  Whites  are  wholly  responsible,  for  from  them 
spring  all  the  governors  and  pardoning  boards. 

The  same  responsibility  rests  on  the  Whites  for  the 
inefficiency  of  criminal  justice  and  for  the  mediaeval  prison 
system.  The  North  might  fairly  plead  that  its  efforts  to 
reform  its  judicial  and  punitive  system  are  resisted  by 
the  lower  elements  of  society,  which  have  such  power 
through  choosing  prosecutors  and  judges  and  legislators, 
in  framing  laws  and  constitutions,  that  the  better  elements 
cannot  have  things  their  own  way.  Not  so  in  the  South, 
where  the  Superior  Race  has  absolute  control  of  the  mak- 
ing of  law  and  the  administering  of  justice,  and  the  treat- 
ment of  prisoners.  Every  judge  in  the  South,  except  a 
few  little  justices  of  the  peace,  is  a  white  man.  Negroes, 
although  still  eligible  to  jury  service,  are  rarely  impan- 
eled, even  for  the  trial  of  a  Negro.  Negro  testimony  is 
received  with  due  caution;  hardly  any  court  will  accept 
the  testimony  of  one  black  against  one  white  man.  For 
failures  in  the  administration  of  justice,  for  unwillingness 
to  try  men  for  homicide,  for  technicalities  in  procedure, 
for  hesitancy  of  juries,  the  Superior  Race  is  wholly  respon- 
sible. The  system  is  bad  simply  because  the  white  people 
who  are  in  control  of  the  Southern  state  governments  are 
willing  that  it  should  be  bad.  With  all  the  machinery  of 
14  203 


THE    SOUTHERX    SOUTH 

legislation,  and  of  the  courts  in  its  possession,  the  white 
race  still  resorts  to  forms  of  violence  which  sometimes 
strike  an  innocent  man,  and  always  brutalize  the  commu- 
nity, and  lead  to  a  contempt  for  the  ordinary  forms  of 
justice.  The  place  for  the  white  people  to  begin  a  real 
repression  of  crime  is  by  punishing  their  criminals  without 
enslaving  them. 


CHAPTER   XV 

LYNCHING 

THE  defects  in  the  administration  of  justice  in  the 
South  are  complicated  by  a  recognized  system  of 
punishment  of  criminals  and  supposed  criminals  by 
other  persons  than  officers  of  the  law — a  system  to  which  the 
term  Lynch  Law  is  often  applied.     In  part  it  is  an  effort 
to  supplement  the  law  of  the  commonwealths;  in  part  it 
is  a  protest  against  the  law's  delay;  in  greater  part  a  de- 
fiance of  law  and  authority  and  impartial  justice. 

In  its  mildest  form  this  system  of  irresponsible  juris- 
prudence takes  the  form  of  notices  to  leave  the  country, 
followed  by  whipping  or  other  violence  less  than  mur- 
derous, if  the  warning  be  disregarded.  Such  a  method 
owes  all  its  force  to  the  belief  that  it  proceeds  from  an 
organized  and  therefore  a  powerful  race  of  people.  Next 
in  seriousness  eome  the  race  riots  of  which  there  were 
many  examples  during  the  Reconstruction  era;  and  oc- 
casionally they  burst  into  serious  race  conflicts,  of  which 
half  a  dozen  have  occurred  in  the  last  decade.  The  re- 
sponsibility rests  in  greater  measure  on  that  race  which 
has  the  habit  of  calculated  and  concerted  action :  reckless 
Xegroes  can  always  make  trouble  by  shooting  at  the  Whites ; 
but  the  laws,  the  officers  of  justice,  the  militia,  the  courts, 
are  in  the  hands  of  the  white  people.  Since  they  are  al- 
ways able  to  protect  themselves  by  their  better  organiza- 

205 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

tion,  their  command  of  the  police,  and  the  conviction  in 
the  minds  of  both  races  that  the  white  man  will  always 
come  out  victorious,  most  troubles  that  start  with  the 
Negroes  could  easily  be  dealt  with,  but  for  a  panic  terror 
of  negro  risings  which  harks  back  to  slavery  times.  It  is 
very  easy  to  stampede  Southern  communities  by  such  ru- 
mors. When,  in  1908,  six  armed  Negroes  were  arrested  in 
Muskogee,  Okla.,  telegrams  went  all  over  the  country  to 
the  effect  that  a  race  war  was  on,  and  two  companies  of 
militia  were  ordered  out;  but  apparently  there  was  not 
a  glimmer  of  real  trouble.  Negroes  have  repeatedly  been 
driven  out  of  small  places.  For  instance,  in  August,  1907, 
in  Onancock,  on  the  eastern  shore  of  Virginia,  there  was 
a  dispute  over  a  bill  for  a  dollar  and  a  quarter  which 
ended  with  the  banishment  of  a  number  of  Negroes.  In 
the  year  1898  there  was  a  similar  riot  in  Wilmington, 
N.  C.,  and  several  thousand  Negroes  were  either  ejected  or 
left  afterwards  in  terror.  The  trouble  here  began  in  ex- 
citement over  the  elections. 

By  far  the  most  serious  of  these  occurrences  was  the 
so-called  race  riot  at  Atlanta,  September  22,  1906,  caused 
primarily  by  that  intense  hostility  to  the  Negroes  which 
is  to  be  found  among  town  youths;  and  secondarily  by 
some  aggravated  crimes  on  the  part  of  Negroes,  and  the 
equally  aggravated  crime  of  a  newspaper,  the  Atlanta 
Evening  News,  which,  by  exaggerating  the  truth  and  add- 
ing lies,  inflamed  the  public  mind ;  on  the  night  before  the 
riot  it  called  upon  the  people  of  Atlanta  to  join  a  league 
of  men  who  "  will  endeavor  to  prevent  the  crimes,  if  pos- 
sible, but  failing,  will  aid  in  punishing  the  criminals." 

The  whole  affair  has  been  examined  "by  several  compe- 
tent observers,  but  the  essential  facts  may  be  taken  from 
the  report  of  a  committee  of  business  men  of  Atlanta,  who 

206 


LYNCHING 

vent  into  the  matter  at  the  time,  and  who  declared  that 
of  the  persons  killed,  "  There  was  not  a  single  vagrant. 
They  were  earning  wages  in  useful  work;  .  .  .  they  were 
supporting  themselves  and  their  families.  ...  Of  the 
wounded,  ten  are  white  and  sixty  colored.  Of  the  dead, 
two  are  white  and  ten  are  colored."  This  was  not  a 
riot,  but  a  massacre,  for  which  the  Superior  Race  is  respon- 
sible ;  and  from  every  point  of  view  it  was  damaging  to  the 
whole  South.  It  kept  back  foreign  emigrants,  it  deeply 
discouraged  the  best  of  the  Negroes  in  Atlanta  and  else- 
where ;  it  gave  rein  to  the  passions  of  the  mob.  Consider- 
ing that  nobody  was  killed  from  among  the  mob,  it  seems 
like  a  ferocious  practical  joke  that  scores  of  Negroes  were 
arrested  and  charged  with  murder,  while  not  a  single  one 
of  the  hundreds  of  real  murderers  has  ever  received  the 
slightest  punishment.  Who  can  wonder  at  the  grief  and 
anguish  of  DuBois's  "  Litany  of  Atlanta !  "  Every  large 
place  is  liable  to  disturbance;  Northern  cities  have  had 
race  riots,  and  are  likely  to  have  more.  The  recent  as- 
saults on  and  murders  of  Negroes  in  Springfield,  Ohio,  and 
Springfield,  111.,  are  not  different  in  spirit  from  those  in 
the  South;  and  though  there  were  plenty  of  indictments, 
the  leader  of  the  latter  mob  was  acquitted  on  his  trial — a 
result  which  was  reflected  in  the  famous  Cairo  mob  of  1909. 
What  progress  can  be  made  in  breaking  up  the  savage 
and  criminal  instincts  of  the  Negro  when  he  sees  the 
same  instincts  in  the  Superior  Race,  which  is  in  a  position 
to  do  him  harm?  If  the  Negroes  for  any  cause  should 
in  any  Southern  city,  where  they  are  in  the  majority,  take 
possession  of  the  streets  and  hunt  white  people  to  death 
as  was  done  in  Atlanta,  it  would  bring  on  a  race  war 
which  would  devastate  the  whole  South;  and  the  lower 
race  would  be  severely  punished  for  aspiring  to  the  same 

207 


fashions  in  gunshots  as  its  superiors.  As  a  commercial 
traveler  said  on  the  general  subject  of  race  relations: 
"You  do  not  understand  how  the  young  fellows  in  the 
South  feel ;  when  any  trouble  comes,  they  want  to  kill  the 
nigger,  whether  he  has  done  anything  or  not." 

The  third  and  most  frequent  form  of  race  violence  is 
lynching,  a  practice  obscured  by  a  mass  of  conventional 
and  improbable  statements.  The  subject  has  been  set  in  its 
proper  light  in  an  impartial  and  scientific  study  by  Pro- 
fessor Cutler  entitled  "  Lynch  Law,"  based  on  a  compila- 
tion of  statistics  which  come  down  to  1903.  He  sweeps 
away  three  fourths  of  the  usual  statements  on  the  subject, 
first  of  all  disproving  the  allegation  that  lynching  is  a  com- 
paratively recent  practice  brought  about  by  negro  crimes 
since  the  Civil  War.  The  term  Lynch  Law  has  been 
traced  back  to  Colonel  Charles  Lynch,  of  Virginia,  who, 
in  Eevolutionary  times,  presided  at  mde  assemblies  which 
whipped  Tories  until  they  were  willing  to  shout  "  Hurrah 
for  Liberty !  "  Till  about  1830  lynching  never  meant  kill- 
ing; it  was  applied  only  to  whippings  or  to  tarring  and 
feathering.  In  the  frontier  conditions  of  the  South  and 
West,  the  habit  grew  up  of  killing  desperadoes  by  mob 
law,  as,  for  instance,  the  celebrated  clearing  out  of  five 
gamblers  at  Vicksburg,  Miss.,  in  1835.  This  process  was 
also  applied  to  some  murderers,  both  Whites  and  Negroes. 

Professor  Cutler  also  disposes  of  the  assertion  that  the 
most  serious  offense  for  which  lynching  is  applied  was  un- 
known previous  to  emancipation.  In  1823,  a  Negro  in 
Maryland  was  badly  beaten,  though  not  killed,  for  a  sup- 
posed attack  upon  a  white  woman.  In  1827  one  was 
burned  at  the  stake  in  Alabama  for  killing  a  white  man. 
From  that  time  on,  lynching  of  blacks  continued  in  every 
Southern  state — commonly  for  murder,  in  a  few  cases  for 

208 


LYNCHING 

insurrection,  in  at  least  nine  ascertained  cases  previous 
to  the  Civil  War  for  violence  to  white  women.  It  is  evi- 
dent, therefore,  that  the  extremest  crime  had  been  some- 
times committed,  and  the  extremest  punishment  exacted 
by  mob  violence  before  the  slaves  were  set  free. 

The  lynching  of  Negroes  was  kept  up  after  the  war, 
and  carried  into  a  system  by  the  Ku  Klux  Klan  and  later 
White  Caps,  though  usually  applied  by  them  for  political 
reasons.  About  1880  lynching  of  Negroes  began  to  in- 
crease, nominally  because  of  more  frequent  rapes  of  white 
women ;  and  to  this  day  one  often  hears  it  said :  "  Lynch- 
ings  never  occur  except  for  the  one  crime."  In  the  twenty- 
two  years  from  1882  to  1903,  Cutler  has  recorded  3,337 
cases  of  lynchings,  an  average  of  150  a  year,  rising  to  the 
number  of  235  in  1892.  In  1903  there  were  125  persons 
lynched  and  125  executed  legally.  Of  these  lynchings, 
1,997  took  place  in  the  Southern  states,  363  in  the  West- 
ern states,  105  in  the  Eastern  states,  and  not  a  single  one 
in  New  England.  Of  the  3,337  lynchings,  1,169  were  of 
Whites  (109  for  rape)  and  2,168  were  Negroes,  thus  com- 
pletely disposing  of  the  notion  that  this  practice  either 
began  because  of  negro  crime,  or  was  continued  as  a 
safeguard  against  it.  Of  the  blacks  lynched,  783  were 
charged  with  murder;  707  with  violence  to  women;  104 
with  arson;  101  with  theft;  and  from  that  on  down  to 
such  serious  crimes  as  writing  a  letter,  slapping  a  child, 
making  an  insolent  reply,  giving  evidence  or  refusing  to 
give  evidence.  A  Negro  was  lynched  in  1908  for  killing 
a  constable's  horse. 

The  common  notion  that  rape  of  white  women,  the 
most  serious  crime  committed  by  Negroes,  is  on  the  in- 
crease, is  also  exploded  by  these  statistics,  which  show  that 
the  proportion,  which  has  been  as  high  as  one  half  of  all 

209 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

lynchings,  has  come  down  to  about  one  fourth.  It  may 
be  said,  therefore,  without  fear  of  contradiction  that  lynch- 
ing did  not  originate  in  offenses  by  Negroes,  is  not  justi- 
fied by  any  increase  of  crime,  and  is  applied  to  a  multitude 
of  offenses,  some  of  them  simply  trivial. 

Successful  attempts  have  been  made  to  lynch  Negroes 
in  Northern  states,  and  in  1903  one  was  burned  at  the 
stake,  in  Wilmington,  Del.,  which,  however,  is  a  former 
slave  state,  and  the  last  to  adhere  to  the  whipping-post. 
Lynching  has  also  much  diminished  in  the  West,  so  that 
it  is  becoming  more  and  more  a  Southern  crime.  In  1903, 
75  of  the  84  lynchings  were  in  the  South,  in  1907  the 
total  lynchings  had  come  down  to  63,  of  which  42  were  in 
the  four  states  of  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  Alabama,  and 
Georgia,  and  only  2  in  the  North.  The  proportion  of 
causes  of  lynchings  remained  about  the  same :  murder,  18 ; 
violence  to  women,  12;  attempted  violence,  11;  miscella- 
neous causes,  22. 

The  methods  of  the  lynchers  are  very  simple.  In  1906 
a  white  man,  accused  of  murdering  his  brother,  on  whose 
case  the  jury  had  disagreed,  was  dragged  out  of  jail  and 
shot.  In  a  great  many  cases  the  supposed  criminal  is 
hunted  down  by  what  is  called  a  "  posse  " — really  a  self- 
appointed  body  of  furious  neighbors;  and  very  seldom  is 
there  the  semblance  of  investigation.  If  the  offender  is 
lodged  in  jail,  that  sanctuary  of  the  law  is  often  invaded. 
In  August,  1906,  a  mob  of  three  thousand  men,  incited 
by  a  person  who  afterwards  proved  to  be  a  released  con- 
vict, broke  open  the  jail  at  Salisbury,  N.  C.,  in  despite  of 
addresses  by  the  mayor  and  United  States  senator,  took  out 
and  killed  three  supposed  negro  criminals.  Occasionally, 
when  a  criminal  has  been  tried,  convicted,  and  is  awaiting 
execution,  he  is  taken  out  and  lynched,  for  the  excitement 

210 


LYNCHING 

of  seeing  the  man  die,  and  perhaps  from  fear  that  he  will 
be  pardoned. 

Naturally,  in  this  quick  method,  mistakes  sometimes 
occur.  At  Brookhaven,  Miss.,  on  January  2,  1908,  a  Ne- 
gro was  lynched  for  killing  a  white  man ;  a  few  days  later 
they  caught  the  actual  murderer,  but  consoled  themselves 
with  the  belief  that  inasmuch  as  the  first  Negro  was 
wounded  when  captured,  the  presumption  was  that  he 
must  have  killed  some  other  white  man.  A  few  days  later, 
at  Dothan,  Ala.,  a  Negro  was  taken  out,  hanged,  and  two 
hundred  shots  fired  at  him,  but  was  found  the  next  morn- 
ing alive  and  unwounded,  and  was  allowed  to  escape.  In 
a  recent  case  at  Atlanta  a  Negro  positively  identified  by 
the  victim  of  a  most  serious  crime  was  allowed  to  go  to 
trial,  and  was  acquitted,  because  the  court  believed  him 
innocent,  and  the  woman  subsequently  identified  another 
man. 

How  does  it  come  about  that  these  mobs,  composed  in- 
variably of  white  men  and  none  others,  cannot  be  put 
down  by  the  white  authorities?  The  first  reason  is  that 
there  are  no  rural  police  in  the  South  to  make  prompt 
arrests  and  protect  prisoners;  the  sheriffs  upon  whom  the 
custody  of  such  persons  depends  are  chosen  by  popular 
election,  and  usually  have  no  backbone;  one  of  them  who 
had  actually  lodged  his  prisoners  in  jail  said  that  he  hated 
to  do  it,  and  didn't  know  how  he  could  meet  his  neighbors. 
Jailors  commonly  give  up  their  keys  after  a  little  protest; 
there  are  few  cases  where  a  determined  sheriff,  armed  and 
ready  to  do  his  duty,  could  not  quell  a  mob ;  but  what  can 
be  expected  of  a  sheriff  who  turns  over  a  prisoner  to  the 
mob  in  order  that  they  may  "  investigate "  his  crime  ? 
Occasionally  a  sheriff  shows  some  pluck,  and  in  December, 
1906,  President  Roosevelt  singled  out  for  federal  appoint- 

211 


merit  a  sheriff  who  had  lost  his  reelection  because  he  had 
opposed  a  mob.  Governors  are  sometimes  very  weak- 
kneed  ;  a  few  3rears  ago  the  governor  of  North  Carolina  de- 
livered up  to  a  mob  a  colored  boy  who  had  had  such  con- 
fidence in  the  Superior  Eace  as  to  come  to  the  executive 
mansion  and  ask  for  protection.  At  Annapolis,  in  1908, 
neither  the  sheriff,  jailor,  nor  municipal  authorities  made 
any  effort  to  prevent  the  taking  out  of  a  prisoner ;  in  Chat- 
tanooga, Sheriff  Shipp,  who  permitted  a  Negro  to  be  taken 
out  of  his  hands  and  lynched,  though  the  sheriff  had  been 
served  by  telegram  with  an  order  from  a  justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court  directing  him  to  protect  the  criminal,  was 
reflected  by  a  large  majority;  and  apparently  did  not  lose 
popularity  when  a  year  later  he  was  sentenced  to  ninety 
days'  confinement  for  contempt  of  court. 

In  all  the  Southern  states  the  last  state  resort  for  keep- 
ing the  peace  is  the  militia,  and  there  have  recently  been 
two  scandalous  instances  where  these  volunteer  soldiers 
have  permitted  themselves  to  be  overrun  by  a  mob,  giving 
up  their  guns  without  an  effort  to  fire  a  shot.  In  one  of 
these  cases  it  was  recorded  that  "  No  effort  was  made  to 
hurt  any  of  the  soldiers  however,  as  it  was  plain  to  the 
crowd  that  they  had  gained  their  point."  At  Brookhaven, 
Miss.,  in  1908,  the  officer  commanding  the  militia  excused 
himself  because  the  sheriff  had  not  asked  him  to  order  his 
men  to  fire.  These  brave  soldiers,  these  high-toned  South- 
ern gentlemen,  these  military  heroes,  called  out  for  the 
special  purpose  of  protecting  a  prisoner,  would  not  draw  a 
trigger ! 

The  militia  of  course  are  not  cowards,  they  are  simply 
sympathizers  with  the  mob;  and  throughout  the  South, 
in  the  press,  and  from  the  lips  of  many  otherwise  high- 
minded  people,  lynching  is  freely  justified.  Witness  a  cor- 

212 


LYNCHING 

oner's  jury  in  Charlotte,  N.  C. :  "  We,  the  .  .  .  jury  to 
inquire  into  the  cause  of  the  death  of  Tom  Jones,  find  that 
he  came  to  his  death  by  gunshot  wounds,  inflicted  by  par- 
ties unknown  to  the  jury,  obviously  by  an  outraged  public 
acting  in  defense  of  their  homes,  wives,  daughters,  and 
children.  In  view  of  the  enormity  of  the  crime  committed 
by  said  Tom  Jones,  ...  we  think  they  would  have  been 
recreant  to  their  duty  as  good  citizens  had  they  acted 
otherwise."  The  rector  of  St.  Luke's  Church,  Jackson- 
ville, says :  "  I  write  as  an  upholder  of  law  and  order ;  as 
one  who  deprecates  and  denounces  mob  law;  but  I  write 
as  one  who  holds  that  law  is  but  the  will  of  the  majority 
in  a  democracy,  and  that  will  is  that  every  time  a  negro 
criminally  assaults,  or  attempts  to  assault,  a  white  woman, 
he  shall  be  dealt  with  by  mob  law,  which  is  law  after  all. 
Only  I  would  say,  let  that  mob  be  certain,  'beyond  a 
reasonable  doubt,'  that  they  have  the  right  man."  Listen 
to  the  Atlanta  Georgian:  "Some  good  citizens  will  say 
they  are  shocked,  and  deplore  these  evil  conditions,  and 
the  demoralization  they  are  going  to  produce,  and  all  that, 
but  they  really  ain't  shocked,  although  they  think  they  are, 
and  under  proper  provocation  they  would  be  lynchers  them- 
selves." Even  the  late  D.  H.  Chamberlain,  once  Recon- 
struction  governor  of  South  Carolina,  says :  "  Practically  I 
come  very  near  to  saying  that  I  do  not  blame  the  South 
for  resorting  to  lynching  for  this  crime,"  and  Benjamin 
R.  Tillman,  Senator  of  the  United  States,  has  publicly 
declared :  "  I  will  lead  a  mob  to  lynch  a  man  at  any  time 
who  has  attacked  a  woman,  whether  he  be  white  or  black," 
and  that  it  would  probably  be  necessary  "  to  send  some 
more  niggers  to  hell." 

The  standard  published  reason  for  this  acquiescence  in 
lynching  is  that  the  usual  course  of  law  is  inadequate; 

213 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

people  point  to  the  legal  delays  and  the  technicalities  of 
the  courts,  courts  organized  by  white  men,  held  by  white 
judges,  influenced  by  white  counsel,  before  a  white  jury. 
They  claim  that  lynching  is  a  rude  sort  of  primitive  jus- 
tice, "  an  ultimate  sanction "  which  is  simply  a  speedier 
form  of  law,  though  mobs  are  notoriously  easily  confused 
as  to  persons  and  circumstances.  They  consider  lynching 
necessary  in  order  to  prevent  the  taking  of  testimony  in 
open  court  in  cases  of  rape,  a  necessity  which  any  legisla- 
ture could  obviate.  They  plead  that  lynching  is  the  only 
penalty  which  will  keep  the  Negro  in  bounds,  although 
there  are  such  strings  of  lynchings  as  show  conclusively 
that  the  publicity  given  to  sickening  details  makes  lynch- 
ing simply  a  breeder  of  crime.  In  the  little  town  of 
Brookhaven,  Miss.,  there  were  two  lynchings  in  the 
first  eight  weeks  of  1908.  The  Southern  defenders  of 
lynching  set  forth  the  solemnity  of  this  form  of  execu- 
tion, closing  their  eyes  to  the  fearful  barbarities  which 
have  accompanied  many  cases  and  are  likely  to  occur 
any  day. 

The  most  cogent  reason  for  the  practice  of  lynching 
is  that  it  gives  an  opportunity  for  the  exercise  of  a  deep- 
seated  race  hostility.  Most  of  the  murders  and  other 
crimes  which  lead  to  lynchings  happen  where  Whites  and 
Negroes  are  living  close  together.  A  lynching  is  an  oppor- 
tunity for  the  most  furious  and  brutal  passions  of  which 
humanity  is  capable,  under  cover  of  a  moral  duty,  and 
without  the  slightest  danger  of  a  later  accountability. 
Spectators  go  to  a  lynching,  as  perhaps  they  went  to  the 
witch  trial  in  Salem,  or  a  treason  case  under  Lord  Jeffreys, 
to  get  a  shuddering  sensation.  Kindred  of  the  injured 
ones  are  invited  to  come  to  the  front  with  hot  irons  and 
gimlets;  special  trains  have  repeatedly  been  furnished,  on 

214 


LYNCHING 

request  to  the  railroads,  in  order  to  carry  parties  of 
lynchers;  in  several  instances  the  burning  at  the  stake 
of  Negroes  lias  been  advertised  by  telegraph,  and  special 
trains  have  been  put  on  to  bring  spectators.  After  the 
auto  da  fe  is  over,  white  people  scramble  in  the  ashes  for 
bits  of  bone.  Within  a  few  months  a  black  woman  was 
burned  at  the  stake  by  a  mob,  though  everybody  knew 
she  had  committed  absolutely  no  offense  except  to  accom- 
pany her  husband  when  he  ran  away  after  committing 
a  murder.  These  are  not  incidents  of  every  lynching, 
they  are  not  condoned  by  those  Southerners  who  disapprove 
of  lynching;  but  when  you  have  turned  a  tiger  loose  and 
given  him  a  taste  of  blood,  you  are  not  entitled  to  say 
that  you  have  no  responsibility  for  innocent  people  whom 
he  may  devour. 

The  whole  fabric  of  defense  of  lynching,  which  in 
some  cases  and  for  some  crimes  is  justified  by  the  large 
majority  of  educated  white  men  and  women  in  the  South, 
may  be  exploded  into  fragments  by  a  single  test.  If  lynch- 
ing under  any  circumstances  is  for  the  good  of  the  com- 
munity, why  not  legalize  it?  Why  does  not  some  state 
come  out  of  the  ranks  of  modern  civilized  communities  in 
which  public  courts  replace  private  vengeance  and  torture 
has  ceased  to  be  a  part  of  judicial  process,  and  enact  that 
in  every  town  the  adult  men  shall  constitute  a  tribunal 
which — on  the  suggestion  that  somebody  has  committed 
a  crime — shall  apprehend  the  suspect,  and,  with  the  has- 
tiest examination  of  the  facts,  shall  forthwith  condemn 
him  to  be  hanged,  shot,  or  burned,  and  shall  constitute 
themselves  executioners,  after  due  notice  to  the  railroads 
to  bring  school  children  in  special  trains  to  witness  the 
proceedings,  and  with  the  right  to  distribute  the  bones  and 
ashes  to  their  friends  as  souvenirs?  Then  the  whole  pro- 

215 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

ceeding  may  be  inscribed  on  the  public  records,  so  that 
later  generations  may  see  the  care  that  has  been  taken 
to  prevent  lawlessness. 

It  would  be  unjust  to  leave  this  subject  as  thougK 
Southern  people  spent  their  lives  in  breathing  out  threat- 
enings  and  slaughter.  With  all  the  conversation  about 
homicide,  all  the  columns  of  lurid  dispatches  about  lynch- 
ings,  in  which  again  white  people  pen  the  dispatches  and 
white  editors  vivify  them,  the  everyday  atmosphere  seems 
peaceful  enough;  the  traveler,  the  ordinary  business  and 
professional  man,  feels  no  sense  of  insecurity.  Still  one 
wonders  just  what  was  in  the  mind  of  the  Alabamian  who, 
after  driving  a  Yankee  a  hundred  miles  through  a  wild 
part  of  his  state,  prepared  to  return  by  another  way,  but 
remarked :  "  I  wouldn't  be  afraid  to  drive  right  back  over 
the  same  road  that  we  came."  The  chance  that  a  respect- 
able man  in  the  South,  who  attends  to  his  own  business, 
will  be  shot,  is  very  much  greater  than  in  any  other  civil- 
ized country ;  but  powerful  influences  are  at  work  to  bring 
about  better  things.  There  are  some  indications  that  the 
Negroes  will  be  compelled  to  give  up  carrying  weapons, 
and  then,  perhaps,  some  of  the  Whites  can  also  be  disarmed. 
Sensible  people  deplore  the  insecurity  of  life.  As  for  race 
violence,  nobody  who  knows  the  South  can  doubt  that  the 
feeling  of  hatred  and  hostility  to  the  Negro  as  a  Negro, 
perhaps  to  the  white  man  as  a  white  man,  is  sharper  than 
ever  before;  but  that  is  the  feeling  of  those  members  of 
both  races  who  have  no  responsibility,  of  the  idle  town 
loafer,  of  the  assistant  plantation  manager  who  could  make 
more  money  if  his  hands  would  work  better.  On  the  other 
side  stand  the  upbuilders  of  the  commonwealth,  the  educa- 
tors, the  professional  classes,  the  plantation  owners,  the 
capitalists,  most  of  whom  wish  the  Negro  well,  oppose 

216 


LYNCHING 

violence  and  injustice,  and  are  willing  to  cooperate  with 
the  best  element  of  the  Negroes  in  freeing  the  South  from 
its  two  worst  enemies — the  black  brute,  and  the  white 
amateur  executioner. 


CHAPTEK  XVI 

ACTUAL    WEALTH 

IN  every  discussion  of  Southern  affairs  an  important 
thing  to  reckon  with  is  a  fixed  belief  that  the  South 
is  the  most  prosperous  part  of  the  country,  which  fits 
in  with  the  conviction  that  it  has  long  surpassed  all  other 
parts  of  the  world  in  civilization,  in  military  ardor,  and 
in  the  power  to  rise  out  of  the  sufferings  of  a  conquered 
people.  This  belief  is  hard  to  reconcile  with  the  grim  fact 
that  the  South  under  slavery  was  the  poorest  section  of  the 
country.  Visitors  just  before  the  outbreak  of  the  Civil 
War,  such  as  Olmsted,  and  Eussell,  the  correspondent  of 
the  London  Times,  were  struck  by  the  poverty  of  the  South, 
which  had  few  cities,  short  and  poor  railroads,  scanty 
manufacturing  establishments,  and  in  general  small  accu- 
mulations of  the  buildings  and  especially  of  the  stocks  of 
goods  which  are  the  readiest  evidences  of  wealth.  Some 
rich  families  there  were  with  capital  not  only  to  buy  slaves, 
but  to  build  railroads  and  cities ;  and  when  the  Civil  War 
brolce  out  there  was  in  service  a  quantity  of  independent 
banking  capital.  A  delusion  of  great  wealth  was  created 
by  the  listing  as  taxable  property  of  slaves  to  the  amount 
of  at  least  two  thousand  millions.  Although  the  legal  right 
to  appropriate  the  proceeds  of  the  labor  of  the  Negroes 
was  transferable,  it  could  go  only  to  some  of  the  300,000 
slaveholding  families ;  and  no  bill  of  sale  or  tax  list  could 

218 


ACTUAL    WEALTH 

make  wealth  out  of  this  control  of  capacity  to  produce  in 
the  future;  or  if  it  was  wealth,  then  the  North  with  its 
larger  laboring  population  of  far  larger  productivity  was 
entitled  to  add  five  or  six  thousand  millions  to  its  estimate 
of  wealth.  The  South  was  made  richer  and  not  poorer  by 
unloosing  the  bonds  of  the  negro  laborer. 

All  the  world  knows  that  from  1865  to  1880  the  South 
was  comparatively  a  poor  community,  not  because  of  the 
loss  of  slaves,  but  from  the  exhaustion  of  capital  by  the 
Civil  War,  and  the  disturbance  of  productive  labor.  The 
opportunity  for  a  fair  comparative  test  did  not  come  till 
the  region  settled  down  again;  and  then  the  output  in 
proportion  to  the  working  population  remained  decidedly 
small  when  compared  with  European  countries,  and  still 
smaller  when  compared  with  the  Northern  states. 

During  the  last  quarter  century,  however,  the  South  has 
experienced  the  greatest  prosperity  that  it  has  ever  known. 
Its  progress  since  1883  has  been  such  that  an  edito- 
rial in  a  Southern  newspaper  says:  "Leaving  her  mines 
and  her  mills  out  of  the  question,  the  great  South  is 
rich  in  the  products  of  her  fields  alone — richer  than  all 
the  empires  of  history.  She  is  self-contained,  and  what  is 
more,  she  is  self-possessed,  and  she  has  set  her  face  reso- 
lutely against  the  things  which  will  hurt  her."  Since  that 
statement  was  printed  the  material  conditions  of  the  South 
have  improved,  population  has  steadily  increased;  and  the 
resources  of  the  section  have  more  than  kept  pace  with  it, 
manufactures  have  wonderfully  developed,  industry  has 
been  diversified,  railroads  and  trolley  lines  are  extended  by 
Southern  capital;  the  production  of  coal  has  been  enor- 
mously increased;  the  utilization  of  the  abundant  water 
powers  for  electrical  purposes  is  beginning;  most  of  the 
older  cities  have  been  enlarged ;  and  new  centers  of  popu- 
15  219 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

lation  have  sprung  up.  The  traveler  by  the  main  high- 
ways from  Washington  through  Atlanta  to  New  Orleans,  or 
from  Cincinnati  through  Chattanooga  and  Memphis  to 
Galveston,  sees  a  section  abounding  in  prosperity. 

What  are  the  sources  of  this  wealth?  First  of  all 
comes  the  soil;  beginning  with  the  black  lands  in  western 
Georgia  and  running  through  the  lower  Mississippi  val- 
ley to  the  black  lands  of  Texas,  lies  one  of  the  richest 
bodies  of  land  in  the  world,  comparable  with  the  plains 
of  Eastern  China.  It  is  a  soil  incredibly  rich  and,  once 
cleared  of  trees,  easy  of  cultivation;  blessed  with  a  large 
rainfall  and  abundance  of  streams.  This  belt,  in  which 
the  greater  part  of  the  Southern  cotton  is  raised,  is  the 
foundation  of  the  prosperity  of  the  South,  which  for 
that  reason  is  likely  to  continue  permanently  a  farming 
Community. 

These  rich  soils  are  not  to  be  had  for  the  asking,  and 
fully  improved  lands,  especially  the  few  plantations  that 
are  undrained,  bring  prices  up  to  $100  an  acre  or  more, 
but  uncleared  land  is  still  very  cheap,  and  away  from  the 
Black  Belt  may  be  had  at  low  prices,  especially  in  the  piney 
woods  regions,  which  when  fertilized  are  productive  and 
profitable. 

Among  the  most  valuable  Southern  lands  are  those  un- 
der culture  for  fruits  and  "truck."  This  is  one  of  the 
few  methods  of  intensive  agriculture  practiced  in  the 
South.  Success  in  such  farming  depends  on  climate,  ac- 
cessibility to  market,  and  skill.  A  belt  of  land  in  Eastern 
Texas  which  has  good  railroad  communication  with  the 
North,  has  suddenly  become  one  of  the  most  prosperous 
parts  of  the  South  because  its  season  is  several  weeks 
earlier  than  that  of  most  of  its  competitors.  Truck 
farming  bids  fair  to  change  the  conditions  of  the  Sea 

220 


ACTUAL   WEALTH 

Islands,  of  the  Carolines  and  of  Georgia,  since  they  are 
in  easy  and  swift  communication  with  the  great  Northern 
markets. 

Scattered  everywhere  throughout  the  South  are  enor- 
mous areas  of  swamp  land,  partly  in  the  deltas  of  the 
rivers,  and  partly  caught  between  the  hills.  Under  vari- 
ous acts  of  Congress  8,000,000  acres  of  so-called  "  swamp 
lands  "  were  given  to  the  states  including  much  rich  bot- 
tom land.  The  South  is  now  making  a  demand  upon  the 
Federal  Government  to  assume  toward  those  lands  a  respon- 
sibility akin  to  that  for  the  irrigated  tracts  in  the  Far 
West,  and  it  seems  likely  that  either  a  Federal  or  State 
system  will  undertake  the  reclamation  of  large  tracts.  The 
legislature  of  Florida,  for  instance,  has  authorized  the  levy 
of  a  drainage  tax  for  the  drainage  of  the  everglades,  where 
millions  of  acres  could  be  made  available.  At  present  all 
the  Federal  projects  under  way,  though  they  involve  2,- 
000,000  acres  and  $70,000,000  of  expenditure,  are  in  the 
Far  West  and  on  the  Pacific  Slope. 

The  fundamental  fact  that  the  South  is  mainly  agricul- 
tural is  brought  out  by  the  statistics  of  occupations  in 
1900.  The  greater  part  of  the  population  of  both  white 
and  black  races  is  on  the  soil.  By  the  census  of  1900,  in 
sixteen  states  counted  Southern,  thirty-eight  per  cent  of 
the  population  were  bread-winners.  Out  of  the  total  pop- 
ulation of  23,000,000  there  were  8,100,000  persons  engaged 
in  gainful  occupations,  of  whom  814,000  were  in  large 
cities  and  the  remaining  7,300,000  in  small  cities  and  the 
country.  The  rapid  growth  of  towns  and  small  cities  is 
due  to  the  prosperity  of  the  open  country;  and  hence  the 
large  city  is  less  important  and  less  likely  to  absorb  the 
rural  population  than  is  the  case  in  the  North. 

Except  the  Pacific  Northwest  no  part  of  the  Union  is 
221 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

so  rich  in  timber  as  the  South.  Until  about  ten  years  ago, 
enormous  areas  of  timber  land  were  so  far  from  railroads 
that  nobody  could  think  of  lumbering  them;  now  that  the 
hills  of  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  Alabama,  Georgia,  and  the 
Carolinas  are  penetrated  with  main  lines,  now  that  branches 
are  pushed  out  and  that  logging  trams  stretch  still  far- 
ther, few  spots  lie  more  than  fifteen  miles  from  rails.  Be- 
fore sawmills  arrive,  men  can  earn  fair  day  wages  at  cut- 
ting railway  ties  and  hauling  them  as  much  as  fifteen 
miles,  so  that  the  poor  land-owners  have  one  unfailing  cash 
resource.  Up  to  the  financial  depression  of  1907,  lumber- 
ing of  every  kind  was  very  prosperous;  new  mills  were 
under  construction  and  a  large  amount  of  labor  found 
employment.  In  1908  many  concerns  were  shut  down, 
and  planters  were  rejoiced  because  Negroes  were  coming 
back  to  them  for  employment.  The  check  to  lumbering  is 
only  temporary.  The  South  still  furnishes  more  than 
one  third  of  the  total  product  of  the  country ;  and  Louisi- 
ana comes  next  to  the  state  of  Washington  in  the  amount 
of  annual  cut.  But,  as  a  native  puts  it,  "  Timber  is  a'git- 
tin'  gone  " ;  and  in  ten  years  most  of  the  Southern  states 
will  approach  the  condition  of  Michigan  and  Wisconsin  in 
the  decline  of  that  industry.  Nevertheless,  one  may  still 
ride  or  drive  for  days  through  splendid  pine  forests  that 
have  hardly  seen  an  ax.  In  most  places  when  the  timber 
is  cut,  farming  comes  in,  and  that  is  the  cause  of  the  ex- 
traordinary prosperity  of  the  "  piney  woods  "  belt,  through 
southern  Georgia  and  Alabama;  where  the  farmer  of  a 
few  years  ago  was  making  a  scanty  living,  he  is  now  able 
to  sell  his  timber,  to  clear  the  land,  and  to  begin  cotton 
raising  on  a  profitable  scale. 

The  South  is  conscious  of  the  wastage  of  its  timber  re- 
sources, for  the  cut  is  now  advancing  far  up  on  the  highest 

222 


ACTUAL   WEALTH 

slopes  of  the  mountain  ranges ;  hence  the  Southern  mem- 
bers of  Congress  have  joined  with  New  Englanders  in  sup- 
porting a  bill  for  an  Appalachian  Forest  Reserve,  which 
would  set  apart  considerable  areas  at  intervals  from  Mount 
Washington  in  New  Hampshire  to  Mount  Mitchell  in 
North  Carolina,  to  be  administered  by  the  federal  govern- 
ment in  about  the  same  fashion  as  the  similar  reserves  in 
the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the  Sierra  Nevada  and  Cascade 
Ranges.  This  movement  is  greatly  strengthened  by  the 
manufacturers,  who  believe  that  the  water  powers  require 
a  conservation  of  the  upper  forests. 

Growing  trees  are  available  not  only  for  lumber  and 
railroad  ties,  but  for  turpentine,  and  any  two  of  these 
processes,  or  even  all  three,  may  be  going  on  at  the  same 
time.  On  a  tract  of  pine  land,  no  matter  where,  usually 
the  first  process  is  to  box  the  trees  for  turpentine,  and  the 
men  in  the  business  sometimes  buy  the  land  outright,  but 
oftener  simply  pay  a  royalty.  For  this  privilege  the  old- 
fashioned  price  was  a  cent  a  tree,  which  would  be  about 
$40  or  $50  for  a  160-acre  tract;  but  lately  farmers  have 
received  as  much  as  a  thousand  dollars  for  the  turpentine 
on  their  farms.  The  box  or  cut  in  the  trunk  can  be  en- 
larged upward  every  year  for  five  years;  then  if  the  tree 
is  left  untouched  for  six  or  seven  years  it  may  be  back- 
boxed  on  the  other  side  and  will  yield  again  for  five  or 
six  years;  so  that  it  takes  about  twenty  years  to  exhaust 
the  turpentine  from  a  given  area.  The  flow  from  the 
incision,  collected  in  a  hollow  cut  out  of  the  wood,  or 
by  a  better  modern  method  of  spigots  and  cups,  not  unlike 
that  used  for  maple  trees,  is  periodically  collected  and  car- 
ried to  the  still,  where  the  turpentine  is  distilled  over,  and 
the  heavier  residue  makes  the  commercial  resin.  At  the 
prices  of  the  last  few  years  this  "  naval  stores  "  industry 

223 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

has  been  profitable  and  millions  of  trees  are  still  being 
tapped. 

In  mining,  the  South  has  no  such  position  as  in  timber. 
The  coal  product  is  respectable  and  growing — in  1906 
nearly  40  million  tons,  which  was  a  ninth  of  the  national 
product.  Iron  ore  is  also  plentiful;  and  lead  and  zinc 
are  abundant  in  Missouri.  Of  the  output  of  more  than  a 
hundred  millions  of  precious  metals,  not  half  a  million  can 
be  traced  to  the  South — and  there  are  no  valuable  copper 
mines. 

"  Varsification,  that's  what  we  want,"  was  the  dictum 
of  the  sage  of  a  country  store  in  the  South;  and  diversifi- 
cation the  South  has  certainly  attained.  The  annual 
money  value  of  manufactured  products  has  now  become 
considerably  greater  than  of  the  agricultural  products, 
though  of  course  the  crops  are  the  raw  materials  to  many 
manufactures.  In  1880  the  manufactured  products  of  the 
South  were  under  500  million  dollars,  or  one  eleventh  of 
the  total  of  the  United  States;  in  1900  they  had  risen  to 
1,500  millions,  or  about  one  ninth  of  the  total;  and  in 
1905  they  were  2,200  millions — a  seventh  of  the  total. 

The  most  striking  advance  in  manufactures  has  been  in 
iron,  the  production  of  pig  rising  from  1,600,000  tons  in 
1888  to  3,100,000  in  1906,  a  seventh  of  the  national  total; 
a  prosperity  due  in  part  to  the  close  proximity  of  excellent 
ore  and  coal.  But  the  production  in  other  parts  of  the 
Union  has  increased  even  more  rapidly,  so  that  the 
proportion  of  iron  made  in  the  South  is  smaller  than 
at  any  time  in  twenty  years.  One  difficulty  of  the  manu- 
facture is  that  it  requires  besides  the  crude  labor  of  the 
Negroes  a  large  amount  of  skilled  labor,  which  cannot  be 
furnished  by  the  Poor  Whites  or  the  Mountain  Whites. 

Another  large  manufacture  is  that  of  tobacco.,  which  is 
224 


grown  in  quantities  in  many  of  the  Southern  states,  par- 
ticularly in  North  Carolina  and  Kentucky,  the  great  centers 
of  the  tobacco  industry  being  Kichmond,  Durham  (North 
Carolina),  and  Louisville.  The  tobacco  factories  are  one  of 
the  few  forms  of  manufacture  in  which  Negroes  are  em- 
ployed for  anything  except  crude  raw  labor. 

In  distilled  spirits  the  South  produces  nearly  a  third  of 
the  whole  annual  output — the  greater  part  in  Kentucky; 
the  Lower  South  does  not  provide  for  the  slaking  of  its 
own  thirst ;  and  of  the  milder  alcoholic  drinks  consumed  in 
the  whole  country,  the  South  furnishes  only  about  a  tenth. 
This  success  in  manufactures  is  due  in  part  to  cheap 
power,  for  both  fuel  and  water  power  are  abundant  and 
easily  available;  and  since  the  South  requires  little  fuel 
for  domestic  purposes,  it  has  the  larger  store  for  its  fac- 
tories and  railroads.  The  South  has  also  become  a  large 
producer  of  petroleum,  phosphates,  and  sulphur,  and  in  its 
bays  and  adjacent  coasts  has  the  material  for  a  valuable 
fishing  industry. 

For  carrying  on  these  various  lines  of  business,  the 
South  is  indebted  in  part  to  Northern  and  foreign  cap- 
ital; but  very  large  enterprises  are  supported  entirely  by 
the  accumulations  of  Southern  capitalists ;  and  the  savings 
of  the  region  are  turned  backward  through  a  good  banking 
system  into  renewed  investments.  The  South  before  the 
Civil  War  was  probably  better  supplied  with  small  banks 
lending  to  farmers  than  in  any  other  part  of  the  Union, 
and  in  the  last  ten  years  a  similar  system  has  been  again 
worked  out.  There  are  nearly  1,500  national  banks  in  the 
South,  of  which  two  thirds  have  been  founded  since  1900 ; 
and  in  addition,  there  are  numerous  joint  stock  and  private 
banks.  That  the  business  is  sound  is  shown  by  the  fact  that 
practically  all  the  Southern  banks  weathered  the  crisis  of 

225 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

1907,  which  was  more  severe  there  than  in  the  North.  In  a 
very  remote  rural  parish  of  Louisiana,  in  a  small  and  seedy 
county  seat,  is  a  little  bank  opened  in  November,  1907, 
which,  within  two  months,  had  accumulated  $65,000  of 
deposits,  and  was  still  enlarging.  Through  these  widely 
distributed  banks  capital  is  supplied  to  small  industries  and 
to  opportunities  of  profit  which  would  otherwise  be  neg- 
lected. 

One  needs  actually  to  pass  over  the  face  of  the  South  in 
order  to  realize  how  much  progress  has  been  made  in  trans- 
portation facilities.  That  section  has  always  been  alive  to 
the  necessity  of  getting  its  crops  to  market,  and  Charleston 
has  for  a  century  been  at  work  on  communications  with  the 
interior;  and  the  Pedee  Canal,  the  first  commercial  canal 
in  the  United  States,  was  constructed  in  1795  to  bring  the 
crops  to  that  port.  The  navigable  reaches  of  the  South- 
ern rivers  up  to  the  "fall  line"  were  early  utilized  for 
light-draught  steamers,  of  which  some  still  survive.  Turn- 
pike roads  were  also  built  into  the  interior  of  the  state ;  and 
the  railroad  from  Charleston  to  Hamburg — 140  miles — 
completed  in  the  thirties,  was  the  longest  continuous  line 
of  railroad  then  in  existence.  Down  to  the  Civil  War 
Charleston  had  an  ambitious  scheme  for  a  direct  line  across 
the  mountains  to  Cincinnati.  The  effort  to  keep  transpor- 
tation up  to  the  times  for  various  reasons  was  not  success- 
ful; settlements  were  sparse,  exports  other  than  cotton 
scanty,  distances  great,  free  capital  limited. 

In  the  last  ten  years  the  South  has  seen  a  wonderful 
advance  in  railroad  transportation.  States  like  Louisiana 
and  Georgia  are  fairly  gridironed  with  railroads,  and  new 
ones  building  all  the  time ;  indeed,  in  the  "  Delta  "  of  Mis- 
sissippi a  railroad  can  live  on  local  business  if  it  has  a 
belt  of  its  own  twelve  miles  wide. 

226 


ACTUAL   WEALTH 

Nevertheless,  the  present  railroad  system  in  the  South, 
comprising  about  80,000  miles,  has  been  mostly  built  since 
1880.  This  system  includes  several  lines  from  the  Middle 
West  to  the  seaboard,  so  that  Baltimore,  the  James  Kiver 
ports,  New  Orleans,  and  Galveston  are  enriched  by  com- 
merce passing  through  their  ports  to  regions  outside  the 
Southern  states.  Nevertheless,  as  will  be  seen  in  the  next 
chapter,  this  means  that  the  great  distributing  centers  in 
the  Union  are  outside  the  limits  of  the  South. 

The  progress  of  the  country  is  measured  also  by  the 
great  improvement  in  accommodation  for  travelers.  The 
testimony  is  general  that  down  to  about  1885  there  were, 
outside  half  a  dozen  cities,  no  really  good  hotels  to  be  found 
in  the  South ;  now  you  may  travel  from  end  to  end  of  the 
region  and  find  clean,  comfortable,  and  modern  accommo- 
dations in  almost  every  stopping  place.  The  demands  of 
the  drummers  are  in  part  responsible  for  this  gratifying 
state  of  things. 

The  country  roads  do  not  share  in  the  advance.  Nom- 
inally the  South  has  over  600,000  miles  of  public  highway, 
but  little  of  it  has  even  been  improved.  Some  of  the  old 
pikes  have  gone  to  ruin,  others  are  still  kept  up  by  tolls; 
but  in  many  regions  which  have  been  well  settled  and  thriv- 
ing for  a  century  and  a  half  there  is  a  dearth  of  bridges, 
and  in  bad  weather  the  roads  are  almost  impassable.  So 
far,  the  difficulty  is  not  much  relieved  by  trolley  lines. 
The  cities  are  well  supplied  and  some  of  them  have  a  su- 
perior system;  but  few  parts  of  the  South  have  such  a 
string  of  populous  places  as  will  justify  interurban  lines, 
exceptions  being  the  Richmond-Norfolk  and  Dallas-Fort 
Worth  systems.  The  trolley  lines  have  been  much  devel- 
oped by  a  Northern  syndicate  which,  under  the  name  of 
Stone  &  Webster,  has  made  a  business  of  buying  or  build- 

227 


ing  and  operating  electric  plants,  many  of  them  with  elab- 
orate water  power ;  and  the  current  is  distributed  for  power, 
light,  and  transportation.  Stone  &  Webster's  lines  can  be 
found  all  over  the  Union,  as  in  Minneapolis  and  in  the 
state  of  Washington,  as  well  as  in  the  South.  The  capital 
of  the  trolley  roads  in  1906  was  3,765  millions,  or  a  fifth 
of  the  total  trolley  investment  in  the  United  States. 

At  the  best  points  of  contact  between  rail  and  water 
transportation  great  port  enterprises  are  springing  up. 
Galveston  is  the  only  port  along  the  whole  coast  of  Texas 
with  easily  obtainable  deep  water,  and  the  Government  has 
spent  great  sums  in  improving  it,  while  the  city  has  made 
the  most  gallant  effort  to  rebuild  and  fortify  itself  against 
the  invasion  of  the  sea  which  a  few  years  ago  almost  de- 
stroyed it.  New  Orleans  feels  itself  the  natural  port  of 
the  lower  Mississippi  valley,  and  the  Eads  system  of  jetties 
keeps  the  mouth  of  the  river  open,  though  there  is  not 
water  enough  to  float  the  great  steamers  that  come  into 
the  large  Atlantic  ports,  and  the  wharf  charges  are  heavy ; 
the  actual  commerce  of  New  Orleans — exports  and  imports 
together — was  in  1907  $28,000,000  less  than  that  of  Gal- 
veston. Inasmuch  as  New  Orleans  is  a  hundred  miles  from 
the  open  sea,  an  effort  has  been  made  to  provide  capital 
to  build  a  gulf  port  about  fifty  miles  to  the  eastward,  but 
so  far  little  progress  has  been  made.  The  city  of  New 
Orleans  has  shown  unusual  enterprise  in  building  a  public 
belt  line  railroad  ten  miles  long,  intended  to  connect  with 
all  the  roads  entering  the  city;  and  the  city  thus  steps 
alongside  Cincinnati  as  the  owner  of  a  veritable  municipal 
steam  railroad.  Between  these  ports  there  is  unceasing 
rivalry,  and  the  depth  of  water  on  the  bar  outside  Gal- 
veston, or  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  is  as  interest- 
ing to  the  Southern  business  man  as  the  bulletin  of  a 

228 


ACTUAL   WEALTH 

football  game  is  to  a  Northerner.  Texas  will  prove  to 
you  by  science,  logic,  and  prophecy  that  no  deep-draught 
vessel  can  get  into  New  Orleans,  or  pay  the  awful  port 
charges  after  it  arrives;  the  Louisianian  is  confident  that 
the  next  typhoon  will  silt  up  those  Texan  lagoon  harbors 
which  have  no  great  river  behind  to  scour  them  out. 

Mobile,  which  is  a  place  with  increasing  foreign  com- 
merce, can  never  hope  to  lead  deep  water  to  its  present 
wharves,  but  about  twenty-two  miles  below  the  city  is  an 
opportunity  to  bring  large  ships  nearly  inshore,  and  that 
is  likely  to  be  the  future  port  of  Mobile.  Pensacola  is  the 
special  favorite  of  the  Louisville  &  Nashville  Kailroad, 
but  seems  to  have  no  advantages  which  will  bring  it  ahead 
of  its  neighbor  Mobile.  Of  the  lower  Atlantic  ports,  Fer- 
nandina,  Brunswick,  Savannah,  Charleston,  and  Wilming- 
ton are  all  limited  in  the  depth  of  water,  and  several  of 
them  require  difficult  river  navigation.  The  deep-water 
ports  of  Baltimore  on  the  Chesapeake,  and  Norfolk,  Ports- 
mouth, and  Newport  News  on  the  lower  James,  are  on  the 
extreme  borders  of  the  South  and  depend  for  their  pros- 
perity chiefly  on  Western  commerce. 

The  transportation  business  of  the  South,  as  in  other 
parts  of  the  Union,  has  drifted  into  the  hands  of  a  com- 
paratively few  large  corporations.  The  Southern  Kailroad, 
the  Atlantic  Coast  Line,  the  Seaboard  Air  Line,  and  the 
Louisville  &  Nashville  include  nearly  all  the  railroads 
between  Virginia  and  Mississippi.  The  Baltimore  &  Ohio, 
Chesapeake  &  Ohio,  Norfolk  &  Western,  and  the  new  Vir- 
ginia Railroad  connect  the  tide  water  of  Virginia  and  North 
Carolina  with  the  West.  The  Louisville  &  Nashville,  Illi- 
nois Central,  the  Missouri  Pacific  and  Queen  and  Crescent 
roads  stretch  southward  from  the  Middle  Western  states  to 
the  Gulf.  In  Texas  three  or  four  railway  systems  com- 

229 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

pete  for  the  business  between  the  upper  trans-Mississippi 
country  and  the  Gulf,  and  there  is  a  bewildering  complex 
of  branch  lines.  The  net  result  is  that  the  South  outside 
the  mountains  is  gridironed  with  railways.  The  areas 
more  than  ten  miles  from  a  railroad  line  in  the  South  are 
now  comparatively  small.  For  this  reason  may  be  ex- 
pected a  more  rapid  development  of  the  resources  and 
wealth  of  that  section  in  the  next  ten  years  than  in  the 
last  decade. 


CHAPTER   XVII 

COMPARATIVE   WEALTH 

WEALTH  the  South  possesses — large  wealth,  grow- 
ing wealth,  greater  wealth  than  that  section  has 
ever  before  approached.  So  agreeable  is  this 
state  of  things  that  Southern  writers  are  inclined  not  only 
to  set  forth  their  prosperity  but  to  claim  that  theirs  is  the 
most  prosperous  part  of  the  whole  country  and  is  soon  to 
become  the  richest.  As  Edmonds  puts  it  in  his  "  Facts 
about  the  South  " :  "  Against  the  poverty,  the  inexperience, 
the  discredit  and  doubt  at  home  and  abroad  of  ourselves 
and  our  section  of  1880,  the  South,  thrilled  with  energy 
and  hope,  stands  to-day  recognized  by  the  world  as  that  sec- 
tion which  of  all  others  in  this  country  or  elsewhere  has  the 
greatest  potentialities  for  the  creation  of  wealth  and  the 
profitable  employment  of  its  people."  The  Southern  state- 
ments of  the  poverty  of  the  South  from  1865  to  1880  are 
more  easily  verified.  The  tracks  of  armies  outside  Virginia 
and  parts  of  Tennessee  were  narrow ;  but  at  the  end  of  the 
war  the  South  had  exhausted  all  its  movable  capital ;  the 
banks  were  broken ;  the  state  and  Confederate  bonds  worth- 
less ;  the  railroads  ruined ;  the  cities  disconsolate.  And  the 
labor  system  was,  for  a  time,  much,  disturbed,  though  never 
disrupted.  As  Henry  Watterson,  of  Kentucky,  puts  it: 
"  The  South !  The  South  !  It  is  no  problem  at  all.  The 
whole  story  of  the  South  may  be  summed  up  in  a  sentence : 

231 


TTTTC    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

She  was  rich,  she  lost  her  riches;  she  was  poor  and  in 
bondage;  she  was  set  free,  and  she  had  to  go  to  work;  she 
went  to  work,  and  she  is  richer  than  ever  before.  You  see 
it  was  a  ground-hog  case.  The  soil  was  here,  the  climate 
was  here,  but  along  with  them  was  a  curse,  the  curse  of 
slavery." 

The  immense  increase  of  wealth  and  productivity  since 
1880  is  equally  unquestionable.  When  it  comes  to  the 
claim  that  it  is  the  most  prosperous  part  of  the  world,  it 
cannot  be  accepted  offhand.  The  fact  that  the  South  is 
well  off  does  not  prove  that  it  is  better  off  than  its  neigh- 
bors; the  wealth  and  prosperity  of  the  South  are  always 
limited  by  the  character  of  its  labor.  Calculation  of 
profits,  adding  of  bank  balances,  cutting  of  coupons,  have 
to  some  degree  drawn  men's  minds  away  from  the  race 
question;  but  on  the  other  hand  the  demand  for  labor  and 
the  losses  of  dividends  or  of  opportunities  to  make  money 
because  the  labor  is  inefficient  are  ever  renewed  causes  of 
exasperation.  At  all  times  the  South  is  subject  to  re- 
verses like  those  of  other  regions.  The  crisis  of  1907  hit 
that  section  hard  by  cutting  down  the  demand  for  timber, 
minerals,  iron,  and  other  staples,  and  was  one  of  the  fac- 
tors in  a  decline  in  cotton  which  touched  the  pocket  nerve 
of  the  South;  and  the  railroads  felt  the  loss  of  business. 
Still,  most  Southern  enterprises  weathered  the  storm,  and 
in  1909  the  tide  of  prosperity  is  mounting  again. 

If  it  be  true  that  the  South  is  the  most  prosperous  part 
of  the  world,  a  disagreeable  responsibility  falls  upon  some- 
body for  having  less  than  the  best  schools,  libraries,  build- 
ings, roads,  and  other  appliances  of  civilization;  if  it  be 
not  true,  there  must  be  some  defect  in  the  social  or  indus- 
trial system  which  out  of  such  splendid  materials  produces 
less  than  a  fair  proportion  of  the  world's  wealth.  To  be 

232 


COMPARATIVE    WEALTH 

sure  a  section  or  a  state  might  lag  behind  in  production  and 
yet  forge  ahead  in  education,  in  the  harmony  of  social 
classes,  in  respect  for  law,  in  good  order.  Switzerland  is 
not  a  rich  country,  but  it  is  an  advanced  country.  The 
claims  of  superior  productiveness  can  with  difficulty  be 
tested.  The  relative  status  of  the  two  sections  in  intellect- 
ual and  governmental  ways  has  been  examined  in  earlier 
chapters  and  the  South  cannot  claim  supremacy  there.  A 
similar  comparison  shall  now  be  made  as  to  the  relative 
production  and  accumulation  of  the  two  sections. 

A  criterion  of  wealth  much  relied  upon  by  Southern 
writers  is  the  movement  of  commerce.  We  are  told  that 
two  fifths  of  the  inward  and  outward  movement  of  foreign 
trade  passes  through  Southern  ports.  The  truth  is  that  in 
1907  that  figure  was  $883,000,000  as  against  $2,432,000,- 
000  in  all  Northern  Atlantic,  Lake  and  Pacific  ports.  The 
bulk  of  this  Southern  business,  however,  is  in  exports — 
$742,000,000— a  third  of  the  total.  Not  a  tenth  of  all  the 
imports  came  into  Southern  ports,  and  three  fourths  of 
that  through  the  three  ports  of  Baltimore,  Galveston,  and 
New  Orleans,  from  all  which  a  part  goes  into  non-Southern 
states.  The  explanation  is  that  through  the  Southern 
ports  pour  the  staples,  but  that  the  return  cargoes,  espe- 
cially of  manufactures,  go  to  Northern  ports,  even  though 
part  of  it  is  later  distributed  to  the  South.  A  second  cor- 
rection is  due  to  the  fact  that  about  $536,000,000  of  the 
exports  goes  through  the  five  ports  of  Baltimore,  Newport 
News,  Norfolk  and  Portsmouth,  New  Orleans,  and  Galves- 
ton, all  of  which  are  entrepots  for  immense  trade  originat- 
ing beyond  the  limits  of  the  South.  For  instance,  New  Or- 
leans and  Galveston  together  shipped  24  million  bushels 
of  the  147  millions  of  wheat  exports — practically  not  a 
Southern  crop.  Even  in  such  an  unreckoned  increment  of 

233 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

income  as  the  federal  pension  lists,  the  South  is  less  for- 
ward than  the  North,  which  drew  113  millions  a  year 
against  25  millions  in  the  whole  South  and  11  millions  in 
the  seceded  states — most  of  that  to  colored  soldiers. 

The  relative  wealth  of  the  two  sections  is  best  measured 
not  by  foreign  trade  but  by  internal  production  and  by  pub- 
lic income  and  expenditure,  calculated  on  a  per-capita  basi.s. 
Of  course  conditions  vary  greatly  from  state  to  state; 
in  Alabama  there  is  steady  farm  work  most  of  the  year, 
while  in  North  Dakota  the  winter  is  a  time  of  comparative 
leisure;  California  uses  agricultural  machinery,  South 
Carolina  depends  chiefly  on  hand  tools;  Wyoming  is  so 
young  that  it  has  had  little  time  to  accumulate  capital, 
Tennessee  has  large  accumulations.  It  would  be  unfair  to 
compare  Arkansas  with  Connecticut,  or  Illinois  with  Flor- 
ida, on  a  strictly  per-capita  basis.  The  only  way  to  equal- 
ize conditions  for  a  fair  comparison  is  to  take  groups  of 
states  and  set  them  against  other  groups  -of  equivalent  pop- 
ulation and  of  similar  interests,  so  that  local  errors  may 
neutralize  each  other. 

As  a  basis  for  such  a  comparison  of  resources,  three 
sets  of  tables  have  been  made  up.  The  first  sets  apart 
the  group  of  eleven  seceding  states  with  17,000,000 
people  (West  Virginia  not  included)  as  being  typically 
Southern ;  and  places  against  them  a  group  of  agricultural 
states  extending  from  Indiana  to  Oklahoma,  also  contain- 
ing 17,000,000  people.  The  second  tables  include  the 
whole  South — viz.,  the  fifteen  former  slaveholding  states 
(excluding  West  Virginia),  together  with  the  District  of 
Columbia,  including  a  population  of  about  28,000,000  peo- 
ple ;  to  which  is  opposed  the  Middle  West  and  Pacific  states 
from  Indiana  to  the  Coast,  together  with  Vermont  and 
New  Hampshire,  which  are  added  to  make  up  a  full  28,- 

234 


COMPARATIVE   WEALTH 

000,000.  To  such  comparisons  the  objection  has  been 
made  that  it  averages  the  confessedly  inferior  rural  negro 
population  with  the  picked  immigrants  from  the  East  and 
abroad  in  the  Northwest.  The  objection  is  a  concession  of 
the  lower  average  productive  capacity  of  the  South;  but 
in  order  to  compare  the  white  elements  of  the  two  sec- 
tions by  themselves,  a  third  set  of  tables  compares  the 
whole  South  containing  17,900,000  whites  and  8,000,- 
000  blacks  against  a  group  of  Northern  agricultural 
states  with  a  population  of  18,000,000  whites  and  234,- 
000  blacks. 

The  materials  for  such  comparisons  are  various.  Every 
traveler  has  his  impressions  of  the  relative  prosperity  of 
South  and  North  based  on  what  he  sees  of  stations,  public 
and  private  buildings,  cities  and  stocks  of  goods,  and  on  the 
appearance  of  farms  and  work-people  throughout  the  coun- 
try. For  precise  indications,  the  population  of  the  states 
is  estimated  year  by  year  in  the  Bulletins  of  the  Census 
Bureau;  estimates  of  accumulated  wealth  are  made  every 
few  years  by  the  Department  of  Commerce;  returns  of 
annual  crops  by  the  Department  of  Agriculture;  banking 
statistics  by  the  Treasury  Department.  The  annual  Sta- 
tistical Abstract  prints  summaries  of  manufactures  and 
other  industry,  and  on  these  topics  the  Census  Bureau  issues 
valuable  bulletins.  For  tax  valuations  there  is  no  general 
official  publication,  but  the  World  Almanac  collects  every 
year  from  state  auditors  a  statement  of  assessments.  Most 
of  these  sources  must  be  accepted  as  simply  a  series  of  lib- 
eral estimates,  but  the  factors  of  error  are  likely  to  be  much 
the  same  in  the  Northern  and  the  Southern  communities, 
and  at  least  they  furnish  the  basis  for  a  comparison  in 
round  numbers.  The  tax  assessments  are  significant,  be- 
cause they  are  revised  from  year  to  year,  and  the  methods 
16  235 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

of  assessment  are  not  very  different  in  the  various  parts 
of  the  country  and  are  likely  to  err  by  giving  too  low  a 
value  or  omitting  property,  so  that  comparisons  from  tax 
returns  are  relatively  more  favorable  to  the  poorer  than 
to  the  richer  communities. 

I.    The   Eleven  Seceding   States. 

Tabulation  based  upon  the  principles  stated  above  will 
be  found  in  the  Appendix  to  this  volume;  and  a  study 
of  those  tables  reveals  some  interesting  comparisons  be- 
tween the  eleven  communities  which  formed  the  South- 
ern Confederacy  and  nineteen  Western  communities,  the 
two  groups  each  having  in  1900  about  nineteen  million 
inhabitants.  The  assessed  taxable  valuation  of  the  South- 
ern group  in  1904  was  4,200  millions;  in  the  Northern 
group  it  was  9,700  millions,  or  more  than  double.  Four 
years  later  the  valuations  were  5,200  millions  as  against 
13,800  millions.  Since  tax  assessments  are  subject  to 
many  variations,  perhaps  a  fairer  measure  of  sectional 
wealth  is  banking  transactions.  The  bank  deposits  of  the 
National  groups  of  the  Southern  group  were,  in  1906,  700 
millions,  in  the  Northern  group,  2,400  millions.  Bank 
clearings  in  the  same  year  were  respectively  4  billions 
and  8|  billions. 

All  the  eleven  seceding  states  together  in  1906  valued 
their  real  estate  at  2,900  millions,  their  personal  at  1,800 
millions,  total  4,700  millions.  A  corresponding  Northern 
group  (in  which  the  richest  state  is  Indiana),  counts  its 
real  estate  worth  7,700  millions,  its  personalty,  2,700  mil- 
lions, a  total  of  10,400  millions.  That  is,  the  Northern 
land  and  buildings  are  counted  nearly  thrice  as  valuable, 
and  personalty  about  a  half  more  valuable,  though  every- 

236 


COMPARATIVE    WEALTH 

body  knows  that  there  is  a  vast  deal  of  untaxed  personalty 
in  the  North. 

The  miles  of  railroad  in  the  Southern  group  were 
55,000;  in  the  Western,  94,000;  the  total  value  of  agri- 
cultural products  in  the  South  was  estimated  at  1,060 
millions,  in  the  North  at  1,945  millions.  Even  the  cot- 
ton crop  of  the  eleven  states,  worth  550  millions,  was 
overbalanced  by  the  Northern  corn  crop  which  brought  595 
millions.  The  manufactures  in  the  South  for  1905  were 
1,267  millions;  in  the  Northwest  2,932  millions.  The 
Southern  group  expended  for  schools  26  millions,  the  cor- 
responding Northern  states  expended  91  millions.  The 
value  of  Southern  school  property  was  43  millions,  of  the 
Northern  group  it  was  216  millions;  the  average  annual 
expenditure  per  pupil  in  daily  attendance  in  the  South  was 
$9.75;  in  the  North  about  $28.45.  For  public  benevolent 
institutions  the  South  expended  in  1903  net  $3,000,000, 
the  North  $7,000,000 ;  the  Southern  group  had  1,070,000 
illiterate  Whites,  of  whom  76,000  were  foreign  born;  the 
Northern  group  had  207,000  besides  389,000  illiterate 
foreigners.  In  the  indices  of  accumulated  property  the 
comparison  is  about  the  same;  the  Southern  deposits  in 
all  banks  were,  in  1906,  701  million  dollars,  the  Northern 
2,439  millions.  In  manufactures  the  Northern  group, 
with  a  capital  of  2,240  million  dollars  and  903,000  hands, 
produced  2,932  millions;  against  Southern  capital  of 
1,140  millions,  employing  659,000  persons  and  producing 
1,267  millions. 

The  comparison  of  valuations  brings  out  one  unexpected 
result,  namely,  that  several  of  the  Southern  states  have 
actually  less  taxable  property  now  than  they  had  fifty  years 
ago.  This  does  not  mean  that  they  are  poorer  because 
they  have  lost  their  slaves.  Leaving  slaves  out  of  account, 

237 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

jn  1860  South  Carolina  had  a  valuation  of  $326,000,000 ; 
in  1906  of  $250,000,000;  in  Mississippi  the  valuation  of 
real  estate  in  1860  was  $158,000,000;  in  1906,  with  a  pop- 
ulation more  than  twice  as  great,  it  was  $131,000,000;  in 
the  rich  state  of  Georgia  the  valuation  in  1860,  deducting 
slaves,  was  $432,000,000  against  $578,000,000  in  1906. 
The  Southern  people  feel  justly  proud  of  the  fact  that  the 
valuations  of  the  eleven  former  members  of  the  Confed- 
eracy between  1902  and  1906  increased  by  962  millions, 
from  a  total  of  3,799  millions  to  4,761  millions,  that  their 
annual  manufactures  increased  by  450  millions;  from 
819  millions  in  1900  to  1,267  millions  in  1905. 

This  increase  in  industry  is  so  striking  that  the 
Southern  states  suppose  they  are  unique  in  that  respect; 
but  the  corresponding  Northern  group  of  equal  population 
in  the  same  periods  gained  4,000  millions  in  valuations 
and  705  millions  in  annual  manufactures.  These  figures 
may  be  checked  off  in  various  ways.  Take,  for  instance,  the 
annual  value  of  crops ;  the  South  is  very  certain  that  with 
its  cotton,  its  corn  and  other  crops  together  it  is  far  in  ad- 
vance of  the  North.  In  the  Southern  states  which  were 
in  secession  (excepting  Texas)  the  value  of  farms  and  stock 
in  1900  was  2,100  millions,  the  value  in  an  equivalent 
Northwestern  group  was  7,800  millions.  The  total  farm 
product  in  the  Lower  South  was  1,360  millions,  in  the 
Northern  group  of  equal  population  2,390  millions.  If 
Texas  be  compared  with  a  group  of  Pacific  states,  of 
equivalent  population,  the  Texan  farms  are  worth  960  mil- 
lions, the  Far  Western  1,400  millions. 

The  Lower  South  has  been  saving  money  of  late  years 
and  is  proud  of  its  growing  bank  deposits,  from  168  mil- 
lions in  1896  to  701  millions  in  1906,  an  increase  of  450 
per  cent;  but  the  equivalent  Northern  population  has  in- 

238 


COMPARATIVE    WEALTH 

creased  from  716  millions  to  2,439  millions.  The  Lower 
South  in  1905  had  917  national  banks  with  deposits  of  308 
millions  and  assets  of  568  millions;  the  similar  Northern 
states  had  deposits  of  834  millions  and  assets  of  1,418 
millions.  Let  us  see  whether  the  South  makes  up  this 
disparity  by  its  state  banks.  In  1906  the  Lower  South, 
including  Texas,  had  deposits  of  700  millions  in  all  banks ; 
and  total  bank  clearings  of  about  3,920  millions;  the 
equivalent  Northern  group  had  deposits  of  over  2,400  mil- 
lions, with  total  clearings  of  about  8,500  millions.  Meas- 
ured, therefore,  by  accumulated  savings,  by  bank  capital, 
by  clearings,  the  South  is  poorer  than  the  least  wealthy 
section  of  the  North.  If  we  were  to  take  the  rich  Eastern, 
and  Northwestern  states,  with  their  immense  population, 
enormous  manufactures  (New  York  City  contains  over 
twenty  thousand  factories),  and  vast  transportation  lines, 
the  fact  that  the  South  is  far  behind  the  North  in  things 
both  material  and  intellectual  would  stand  out  even  more 
clearly. 

//.  The  Whole  South 

It  might  fairly  be  said  that  it  is  unreasonable  to  com- 
pare the  former  seceding  states  which  have  gone  through 
the  disruption  of  their  labor  by  Civil  War  with  new  West- 
ern communities  in  which  there  has  been  no  destruction  of 
capital.  Accordingly  the  second  set  of  tables  compares  the 
whole  South — fifteen  states  and  the  District  of  Columbia 
— with  a  Northwestern  and  Pacific  Coast  group  of  equiva- 
lent population.  Since  a  part  of  the  contention  of  South- 
orn  writers  is  that  the  South  was  richer  than  the  North 
licfore  the  Civil  War  and  is  only  returning  to  her  rightful 
I'hice  of  supremacy,  it  is  worth  while  to  examine  the  sup- 
posed wealth  of  the  South  in  18GO.  The  assessed  valua- 

239 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

tion  of  the  Lower  South  was  then  4,330  millions,  which  a 
Southern  statistician  attempts  to  show  was  750  millions 
more  than  the  combined  wealth  of  New  England  and  the 
Middle  states;  out  of  this  sum,  3,100  millions  was  for 
personal  property,  including  about  1,200  millions  for 
slaves ;  but  either  the  slaves  should  be  left  out  or  a  capital- 
ized value  of  Northern  laborers  should  be  added  on  a  slave- 
market  basis. 

Passing  by  the  figures  of  1870,  which  are  discredited  by 
all  statisticians,  in  1880  the  total  property  valued  for  taxes 
in  the  Lower  South  was  1,880  millions,  in  the  whole  South 
was  3,420  millions;  while  in  similar  blocks  of  North- 
western population  they  were  respectively  2,712  millions 
and  4,640  millions.  This  is  a  splendid  record  for  a  people 
who  had  given  their  all  in  a  civil  war  and  who  had  to  build 
up  nearly  every  dollar  of  their  personal  property  from 
the  bottom.  The  land,  of  course,  was  always  there,  but 
was  worth  much  less  per  acre  in  1880  than  similar  good 
land  in  1860. 

How  far  has  this  rate  of  progress  been  continued  since 
1880  as  shown  by  the  inexorable  method  of  comparing 
groups  of  Southern  states  with  groups  of  Northwestern 
states  of  equal  population  ?  The  tax  valuation  shows  about 
the  same  proportion,  so  far  as  can  be  ascertained,  to  real 
values  in  one  section  as  in  the  other.  The  local  differences 
of  mode  of  assessment  when  averaged  would  probably  not 
disturb  the  result  by  more  then  ten  per  cent.  The  whole 
South  (16  communities)  as  compared  with  a  Northern 
group  of  the  same  number  of  people  in  1907  showed  8.5 
billions  of  assessed  property  against  13.7  billions  in  the 
North.  It  may  therefore  be  set  down  as  proven  that  the 
taxable  wealth  of  the  lower  agricultural  South  is  less  than 
half  that  of  similar  agricultural  communities  in  the  North ; 

240 


COMPARATIVE    WEALTH 

so  that  while  mining  and  manufacturing  states  like  Mary- 
land, Kentucky,  and  Missouri  have  about  the  same  wealth 
as  similar  Northern  communities,  the  South  as  a  whole 
has  not  one  half  the  wealth.  Take  the  former  slaveholding 
states  all  together,  including  such  a  rich  commonwealth 
as  Missouri,  and  the  farm  value  in  the  whole  region  in 
1900,  with  28  millions  of  people,  was  under  5,000  mil- 
lions; while  28  million  people  in  the  West  and  North- 
west owned  farms  to  the  amount  of  about  11,000  mil- 
lions, or  more  than  double.  The  total  Southern  crops 
in  1899,  the  last  year  in  which  the  totals  are  obtainable, 
were  worth  1,360  millions,  the  Northern  crops  counted 
up  to  2,390  millions.  The  value  of  the  Southern  corn 
crop  in  1905  was  416  million  dollars;  the  equivalent 
population  in  the  Northwest  raised  601  million  dollars' 
worth  of  corn.  The  whole  South  raises  about  32  million 
dollars'  worth  of  oats;  the  North  raises  201  millions.  The 
Southern  potato  crop  is  worth  19  millions;  the  Northern, 
76  millions.  Southern  hay  counts  up  to  66  millions  and 
Northern  to  258  millions.  Even  in  tobacco,  the  North 
furnishes  7  million  dollars'  worth  against  35  million  dollars 
in  the  South.  Cotton  is  the  one  crop  that  is  exclusively 
Southern,  and  the  crop  of  1905,  the  year  that  we  are  con- 
sidering, including  the  seed,  was  worth  632  million  dol- 
lars. The  Southern  group  had  127,000  teachers,  school 
property  of  84  millions,  and  total  school  revenue  of  45 
millions,  against  competing  Northern  figures  of  199,000, 
of  293  millions,  and  of  120  millions.  It  is  difficult  in  these 
figures  to  find  justification  for  the  notion  that  the  South 
as  an  agricultural  region  is  richer  than  the  North,  or  is 
likely  ever  to  rival  it. 

The  actual  figures  for  the  present  conditions  of  the 
South  are  sufficiently  attractive.     During  the  four  years 

241 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

1904-1907  the  big  crops  and  high  price  of  cotton  gave  to 
the  South  such  prosperity  as  it  had  never  known  before, 
the  total  output  being  nearly  fifty  million  bales,  which  sold, 
in  cash,  for  about  2,700  million  dollars.  This  happy  result 
was  reflected  in  every  city  and  every  county  of  the  rural 
South,  for  old  debts  were  paid,  new  houses  built,  land 
doubled  or  even  trebled  in  value,  and  a  spirit  of  hopfulness 
pervaded  the  whole  population.  A  buoyancy  is  reflected 
in  the  press,  and  particularly  in  the  Manufacturers'  Rec- 
ord of  Baltimore,  the  leading  Southern  trade  paper.  "  The 
South,"  says  the  Record,  "  is  now  throughout  the  world 
recognized  as  the  predestined  center  of  the  earth,  based  on 
greater  natural  advantages  that  can  be  found  anywhere 
else  on  the  globe."  Or  as  another  Southern  paper  put  it 
some  years  ago :  "  In  1860  the  Richest  Part  of  the  Country 
— In  1870  the  Poorest — In  1880  Signs  of  Improvement — 
In  1889  regaining  the  position  of  1860." 

Nobody  can  be  more  pleased  with  Southern  prosperity 
than  New  Englanders,  who  have  long  since  found  out  that 
the  richer  other  sections  of  the  country  become,  the  more 
business  Northerners  have  with  those  sections;  if  there  are 
directions  in  which  the  South  is  making  more  rapid  prog- 
ress than  the  North,  it  should  be  candidly  acknowledged. 
Nobody  can  visit  thriving  cities  like  Richmond,  Atlanta, 
Birmingham,  Memphis,  New  Orleans,  and  the  galaxy  of 
future  centers  of  population  in  Texas,  without  hearty 
pleasure  in  the  increasing  evidences  of  civilization,  but  it 
is  very  unevenly  distributed.  Off  the  main  lines  of  trans- 
portation the  towns  are  still  ill-built  and  unprogressive, 
and  the  greater  part  of  the  area  of  the  South  is  no  farther 
along  than  states  like  Illinois  and  Minnesota  were  in  the 
late  sixties. 

It  is,  however,  a  ticklish  thing  to  make  these  compari- 
243 


COMPARATIVE    WEALTH 

sons,  because  many  Southerners,  and  particularly  Southern 
newspapers,  consider  it  an  attack  upon  the  South  to  inti- 
mate that  it  is  still  much  improvable.  As  the  Macon  Tele- 
graph said  a  few  months  ago :  "  After  all  what  does  it 
matter  that  a  Harvard  professor  should  consider  us  lazy 
and  not  even  excuse  us  on  the  ground  that  we  are  victims 
of  the  hookworm?  We  still  have  the  right  to  go  on  ex- 
panding the  figures  relating  to  our  remarkable  industrial 
upbuilding,  until  we  have  driven  New  England  out  of  the 
business  of  cotton  manufacturing." 

The  best  measure  of  comparative  wealth  would  be  a 
statistical  statement  of  accumulations.  On  this  subject 
there  are  many  wild  guesses.  The  Manufacturers'  Record 
in  January,  1907,  makes  claims  for  the  South  which  de- 
serve especial  examination :  "  England's  wealth,  according 
to  the  London  Express,  is  increasing  at  the  rate  of  $7,000,- 
000  a  week.  That  is  less  than  one  seventh  of  the  rate  of 
the  increase  of  wealth  in  the  South.  The  increase  in  the 
true  value  of  Southern  wealth  in  the  past  twelve  months  was 
$2,690,000,000,  or  about  $7,300,000  for  every  day  in  the 
year,  including  Sundays  and  holidays.  Xot  only  is  the 
speed  of  increase  in  the  South  so  much  greater  than  that 
in  England,  but  the  South  possesses  resources,  agricul- 
tural and  mineral,  that  make  certain  in  the  future  even  a 
much  greater  rate  of  increase  than  England." 

Except  poor  old  poverty-stricken  Xew  England,  all 
the  world  will  welcome  this  prodigious  accretion  of  wealth. 
Think  how  many  opera  tickets  you  might  buy  for  two  and 
a  half  billions  of  dollars!  The  only  attempt  at  exact  fig- 
ures of  our  national  wealth  is  the  estimate  of  the  Sta- 
tistical Abstract,  published  about  every  four  years,  and  not 
based  on  any  exact  figures.  Such  as  it  is,  it  is  relied  upon 
by  the  Southern  writers;  and  it  sets  forth  that  in  the  four 

243 


THE    SOUTHEKN    SOUTH 

years  from  1900  to  1904  the  total  national  wealth  in- 
creased by  less  than  20  billions,  an  average  of  5  billions 
a  year;  it  is  hardly  likely  that  a  third  of  the  population, 
which  in  other  respects  is  below  the  Northwest,  was  con- 
tributing more  than  half  this  annual  gain.  The  only 
ground  for  the  assertion  seems  to  be  an  alleged  increase 
in  the  Southern  tax  valuation  from  7  billions  in  1906  to 
8  billions  in  1907;  assuming  that  the  average  proportion 
of  valuation  to  actual  value  is  forty  per  cent,  you  have 
your  two  billions  and  a  half. 

The  first  comment  on  this  statement,  which  is  selected 
as  typical  of  the  broad  claims  which  float  through  the 
Southern  press,  is  that  the  figures  furnished  the  World 
Almanac  for  1908  by  the  state  authorities  show  that  the 
Southern  valuations  in  1906  were  7,813  millions,  and  in 
1907,  8,474  millions;  so  that  the  increase  of  assessments 
is  650  millions  instead  of  1,000  millions.  In  the  second 
place,  the  estimated  true  value  by  the  Statistical  Abstract 
in  1904  was  about  20  billions  for  the  whole  South;  and  on 
a  basis  of  comparison  of  the  valuations  of  1904  and  1907, 
the  increase  in  the  whole  three  years  would  be  at  best  only 
two  and  a  half  billions.  In  the  next  place,  two  and  a  half 
billions  a  year  means  that  every  man,  woman,  and  child, 
black  and  white,  is  on  the  average  laying  up  a  hundred 
dollars,  which  is  an  amazing  rate  of  saving. 

Having  thus  proven  that  the  material  progress  of  the 
South  is  exaggerated,  the  next  logical  step  is  to  show  that 
perhaps  it  has  foundation,  inasmuch  as  the  equivalent  28,- 
000,000  people  in  the  Northwest  in  1905  are  gaining 
wealth  still  more  rapidly,  having  increased  their  estimated 
"  true  value  "  from  44  billions  in  1904  to  at  least  50  bil- 
lions in  1907.  The  South,  which  supposes  itself  to  be  get- 
ing  rich  faster  than  any  other  part  of  the  globe,  has  in  the 

244 


COMPAEATIVE   WEALTH 

last  few  years  actually  added  less  to  its  wealth  than  a  simi- 
lar Northwest  agricultural  region.  In  the  year  1906-7, 
while  the  South  added  650  millions  to  its  tax  duplicate, 
the  North  added  850  millions.  If,  as  may  be  the  case,  the 
650  millions  of  valuation  meant  1,700  millions  of  new 
wealth,  the  Northwest  was  adding  at  least  2,300  mil- 
lions. 

In  all  this  array  of  figures  there  is  no  criticism  of  the 
South,  no  denial  that  it  is  more  prosperous  than  it  has 
ever  been  before;  no  desire  to  minimize  its  splendid 
achievements  which  are  helping  on  the  solution  of  the  race 
problem ;  but  it  is  essential  that  the  Southern  people  should 
measure  themselves  squarely  with  their  neighbors.  The 
single  state  of  New  York,  with  less  than  a  fifth  the  pop- 
ulation of  the  South,  has  as  much  property  as  the  whole 
South  (leaving  out  Missouri),  and  adds  every  year  to  its 
wealth  as  much  as  is  added  by  the  whole  South  (leaving 
out  Texas).  The  South  is  really  at  about  the  same  place 
where  the  Northwest  was  thirty  years  ago;  it  is  develop- 
ing its  latent  resources;  building  its  cities;  perfecting  its 
communications;  starting  new  industries;  and  in  much 
less  than  thirty  years  it  will  come  to  the  point  that  the 
Northwest  has  now  reached;  but  that  section  is  still  driv- 
ing ahead  more  rapidly,  and  thirty  years  hence  may  be 
proportionately  richer  than  it  is  to-day.  If  the  South  is 
saving  four  millions  a  day,  the  Northwest  is  saving  five 
millions;  and  the  Middle  and  New  England  states,  the 
other  third  of  the  country,  are  saving  eight  or  ten  millions 
a  day.  If  the  South  is  to  range  up  alongside  the  North- 
west, to  say  nothing  of  the  Northeast,  it  must  increase  its 
production  still  faster,  and  the  only  way  to  accomplish  that 
purpose  is  by  improving  the  average  industry,  thrift,  and 
output  of  its  people. 

245 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 


777.    Comparative   Efficiency   of    White   Populations 
North   and   South 

Some  Southern  statisticians,  while  admitting  these  in- 
dubitable figures,  contend  that  the  South  is  improving  at 
a  much  more  rapid  rate,  and  hence  must  in  no  long  time 
overtake  the  North;  but  it  must  be  remembered  that  in 
most  of  these  fields  of  comparison  the  North  not  only 
shows  from  two  to  two  and  a  half  times  the  output,  but 
that  its  annual  or  decennial  increase  is  absolutely  larger 
than  in  the  South ;  that  is,  that  the  annual  amount  which 
the  South  must  add  to  its  present  output,  in  order  to  catch 
up  with  the  North,  is  larger  than  it  was  a  year  ago,  or 
at  any  previous  time.  A  conventional  explanation  of  this 
state  of  things  is  that  the  Negroes  constitute  a  large  part 
of  the  Southern  working  force,  and  are  much  below  the 
average  of  Americans  in  their  productive  output;  but 
when  comparisons  are  made  between  similar  aggregations 
of  white  population,  results  are  not  very  different.  If 
the  whole  South  (including  the  District  of  Columbia) 
be  compared,  not  with  a  block  of  about  28,000,000 
Northern  people,  but  with  a  block  of  about  18,000,- 
000  white  people  corresponding  to  the  17,900,000  Whites 
in  the  South  (both  figures  for  1900),  the  results  are 
still  startling;  although  the  South  has  all  the  advan- 
tage of  the  labor  and  production  of  8,000,000  Negroes  be- 
sides the  Whites.  The  debts  of  the  Southern  communities 
in  1902  were  374  million  dollars;  of  the  Northern,  301 
millions.  The  total  taxes  raised  in  1902  were:  South,  116 
millions;  North,  202  millions.  The  estimated  Southern 
wealth  in  1900  was  16.7  billions;  in  1904,  19.8  billions, 
an  increase  of  3.1  billions;  in  the  North  the  corresponding 

246 


COMPARATIVE    WEALTH 

figures  are  25.8  billions  and  31.4  billions,  an  increase  of 
5.G  billions.  The  Southern  assessed  valuation  of  1907  was 
8.5  billions,  of  the  Northern  group  10.7  billions. 

What  makes  these  differences?  It  certainly  is  not  be- 
cause the  South  is  deficient  in  natural  resources,  in  fer- 
tility, in  climate,  in  access  to  the  world's  markets,  in  the 
enterprise  of  its  business  men.  What  is  the  reason  for 
this  discrepancy  between  the  resources  and  the  output  of 
the  South?  Some  of  the  Southern  observers  insist  that 
the  North  is  made  rich  through  its  manufactures.  In  or- 
der to  eliminate  that  condition  the  comparisons  in  this 
chapter  are  all  with  Western  and  Northwestern  states 
(Yermont  being  included  simply  to  equalize  the  num- 
bers) ;  some  of  these  states,  as  the  Dakotas  and  Oregon, 
are  very  similar  in  their  conditions  to  the  purely  agricul- 
tural and  timber  states  of  the  South ;  in  other  states,  such 
as  Indiana  and  Wisconsin,  there  are  large  manufactures, 
which,  however,  are  no  more  significant  in  proportion  than 
those  of  Maryland  and  Missouri.  The  Northwestern 
states  have  more  manufactures  than  the  Southern,  but  they 
have  more  of  everything,  which  indicates  industry  and 
prosperity.  The  obvious  reason  is  that  laborers  in  the 
South,  both  white  and  colored,  are  inferior  in  average 
productive  power  to  Northern  laborers;  and  the  obvious 
remedy  is  to  use  every  effort  to  bring  up  the  intelligence, 
and  the  value  to  the  community  of  every  element  of  the 
population. 

While  the  proof  sheets  of  the  foregoing  chapter  are 
passing  through  their  revision  there  appears  in  Collier's 
Weekly  for  January  22,  1910,  an  article  by  Clark  Howell 
of  the  Atlanta  Constitution  who  makes,  in  italics,  the 
statement  that  "  the  trend  of  Southern  development  is 
incomparably  in  advance  of  that  of  any  other  section  of 

247 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

the  continent."  The  opportunity  to  apply  the  cold  bath 
of  statistics  to  such  torrid  statements  can  still  be  taken, 
by  adding  to  the  tables  in  the  Appendix  some  figures  for 
1907  and  1908,  and  even  1909,  together  with  some  gen- 
eralizations based  on  figures  not  included  in  the  tables. 
For  example,  the  figures  for  public  school  education  in 
1907  show  for  the  ten  seceding  states  78,000  teachers 
against  153,000  in  the  corresponding  Northern  group; 
school  property  to  the  value  of  19  millions  as  against  41 
millions;  annual  revenue  of  24  millions  as  against  90 
millions.  The  rich  state  of  Texas,  with  18,000  teachers, 
is  balanced  by  the  Pacific  group  with  28,000;  its  school 
property  of  15  millions  by  64  millions;  its  annual  ex- 
penditure of  7  millions  by  25  millions.  Even  the  richer 
border  state  group  of  five  communities,  and  an  average 
daily  attendance  of  a  million  school  children,  has  school 
property  of  48  millions  against  86  millions  in  the  cor- 
responding Northwestern  states;  and  the  school  revenue 
of  21  millions  must  be  placed  against  the  revenue  in  the 
corresponding  group  of  38  millions. 

The  assessed  valuations  of  the  states,  as  reported  to 
the  World  Almanac  for  1910,  are  as  follows:  the  whole 
South  in  1909  was  assessed  on  10,051  millions — a  gain  of 
2,200  millions  in  three  years;  in  the  equal  Northwestern 
group  it  was  19,884  millions — a  gain  in  three  years  of 
7,000  millions  (out  of  which  perhaps  2,500  millions  should 
be  deducted,  on  account  of  a  bookkeeping  increase  in  the 
assessments  in  Kansas  and  Colorado).  The  cotton  crop 
of  1908  sold  for  675  millions  and  the  corn  crop  of  the 
North  for  886  millions.  The  railroads  in  the  South 
in  1908  totaled  71,790  miles  and  in  the  Northwestern 
group  123,332  miles.  The  South  "  has  just  harvested  a 
billion-dollar  cotton  crop  "  says  Clark  Howell,  and  he  pre- 
248 


COMPARATIVE    WEALTH 

diets  twenty-cent .  cotton.  The  actual  crop  for  1909  was 
probably  less  than  11  million  bales,  and  at  the  average 
price  for  the  season  of  about  14  cents,  it  sold  for  something 
like  770  million  dollars.  The  corn  and  wheat  crops  of  the 
whole  North  (not  the  equivalent  group)  sold  in  the  same 
year  for  2,091  million  dollars. 

No  good  can  result  to  anybody  either  from  belittling 
or  exaggerating  the  productivity  of  the  South.  That  sec- 
tion is  progressing,  and  the  more  it  progresses  the  less 
become  its  difficulties  of  race  and  labor  problems,  the 
greater  its  connection  with  neighboring  states,  the  larger 
the  advantage  to  the  whole  nation.  Still,  on  any  basis 
of  comparison  with  the  least  wealthy  states  and  sections 
of  the  North — whether  it  be  made  between  the  total  popu- 
lation of  equivalent  groups  or  between  the  white  popu- 
lations only,  leaving  out  of  account  the  productivity  of 
the  Negroes,  the  South  is  below  the  national  standard  of 
wealth  and  progress;  it  grows  constantly  in  accumulations 
and  in  productivity,  but  its  yearly  additions  are  less  than 
those  of  the  Northwestern  states,  and  much  less  than  those 
of  the  Northeastern  states. 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

MAKING    COTTON 

THE  South  holds  a  call  upon  the  world's  gold  to  the 
extent  of  $450,000,000  to  $500,000,000  for  the  cot- 
ton which  it  will  this  year  furnish  to  Europe.  .  .  . 
This  money,  whether  paid  in  actual  gold  or  in  other  ways, 
will  so  strengthen  the  financial  situation,  not  only  of  the 
South,  but  of  New  York  and  the  country  at  large,  as  to 
make  the  South  the  saving  power  in  American  financial 
interests.  No  other  crop  on  earth  is  of  such  far-reaching 
importance  to  any  other  great  country  as  cotton  is  to  the 
United  States." 

This  extract  from  the  Manufacturers'  Record  is  a 
somewhat  grandiloquent  statement  of  the  conviction  of  the 
South  that  it  possesses  a  magnificent  cotton  monopoly 
which  no  other  part  of  the  world  can  ever  rival ;  that  with 
proper  foresight  and  with  courage,  the  South  may  corner 
the  world's  market  in  the  staple,  and  fix  a  price  which 
will  insure  prosperity.  In  a  country  full  of  natural  re- 
sources of  many  kinds,  with  a  soil  on  which  corn  may  he 
grown  almost  as  good  as  in  Indiana,  where  cattle  can  be 
raised  and  dairies  may  be  established,  the  chief  aim  and 
object  of  life  is  to  "  make  cotton."  The  talk  of  small  farm- 
ers is  cotton;  every  country  merchant  of  any  standing  is 
a  cotton  buyer;  and  most  of  the  large  wholesale  houses 
and  banks  are  interested  in  cotton. 

In  all  the  large  cities  and  some  of  the  small  ones  are 
250 


MAKING    COTTON 

cotton  exchanges  at  which  are  posted  on  immense  black- 
boards the  day's  data  for  "  Receipts  at  Ports,"  "  Overland 
to  Mills  and  Canada,"  "  Current  Stock,"  "  Southern  Mill 
Takings,"  "Total  in  Sight  to  Date,"  "World's  Possible 
Supply,"  and  so  on.  The  federal  Census  Bureau  pub- 
lishes from  time  to  time  estimates  of  the  acreage  and  con- 
dition of  cotton,  which  so  affect  the  markets  that  great 
efforts  have  sometimes  been  made  to  bribe  the  officials  to 
reveal  the  figures  before  they  are  published.  The  Census 
Office  issues  periodical  reports  showing  the  number  of 
bales  of  cotton  ginned  throughout  the  South. 

This  is  the  more  remarkable  because  cotton  is  not  the 
principal  product  of  the  South,  nor  even  the  major  crop 
of  the  rural  sections;  but  the  size  and  public  handling 
of  the  crop  carry  away  men's  imagination.  Timber,  tur- 
pentine, mining,  and  iron  making,  taken  together,  produce 
a  larger  annual  value  than  cotton.  The  total  value  of  all 
other  crops  in  1907  was  $758,000,000,  which  was  about 
$90,000,000  more  than  the  value  of  the  cotton  crop.  The 
corn  alone  was  over  $485,000,000,  or  over  two  thirds  the 
value  of  the  cotton.  Hay  ($92,000,000),  wheat,  tobacco, 
oats,  and  potatoes  make  up  $272,000,000  more.  Though 
the  Lower  South  grew  only  9,000,000  bushels  of  wheat, 
rice,  cultivated  on  rather  a  small  scale  in  South  Carolina, 
is  a  crop  of  growing  importance  in  Louisiana  and  Texas. 
The  South  raises  no  sugar  beets,  little  flaxseed,  and  not 
a  twentieth  of  the  wool;  but  the  sugar  and  molasses  are 
worth  nearly  $20,000,000.  Trucking  or  the  raising  of  vege- 
tables, chiefly  for  the  Northern  market,  is  said  to  employ 
700,000  freight  cars  in  the  season.  The  South  has  also 
about  15,000,000  cattle,  6,000,000  sheep,  and  15,000,000 
pigs,  all  of  which  are  independent  of  cotton  except  that 
to  some  degree  cotton  seed  is  the  food  for  stock. 
17  251 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

When  all  has  been  said,  however,  the  typical  Southern 
industry  is  cotton,  upon  the  raising  of  which  certainly 
nearly  half  of  the  population  is  concentrated,  and  it  con- 
stitutes about  a  fourth  of  the  whole  annual  product 
of  the  South.  The  field  of  the  cotton  industry  extends 
from  the  foot  of  the  mountains  to  the  Atlantic  and  Gulf 
Coasts;  and  the  Southern  social  problem  is  to  a  very  large 
degree  the  problem  of  cotton  raising  under  a  system  by 
which  one  race  includes  practically  all  the  masters,  and 
the  other  furnishes  almost  all  the  laborers  for  hire. 

The  history  of  cotton  is  in  itself  romantic.  In  1790, 
about  4,000  bales  were  raised;  in  1800,  150,000;  in  1820, 
600,000;  in  1840,  over  2,000,000.  In  1860  there  was  a 
tremendous  crop  of  nearly  5,000,000  bales,  a  figure  not 
reached  again  until  1879.  In  1904  the  crop  was  13,700,- 
000  bales — an  amount  not  equaled  since.  The  price  of 
cotton  has  of  late  ruled  much  lower  than  in  the  first  half 
of  the  century,  when  it  sometimes  ran  up  as  high  as  30 
cents  a  pound.  The  1860  crop  brought  about  11  cents. 
In  1898  the  average  price  was  about  6  cents,  and  some 
cotton  sold  as  low  as  3  cents,  but  the  enormous  crop  of 
1904  brought  about  12  cents,  and  it  has  ruled  higher  since. 
In  1908  the  slackening  of  the  world's  demand  caused  the 
price  to  drop,  but  it  has  risen  again  to  the  highest  point 
for  thirty  years. 

The  significance  of  the  cotton  crop  is  to  be  calculated 
not  by  the  Liverpool  market,  but  by  its  remarkable  effect 
on  the  life  of  the  South.  One  reason  for  its  importance 
is  that  it  can  be  grown  on  a  great  variety  of  land.  Most 
of  the  best  American  long  staple,  the  Sea  Island,  comes 
from  a  limited  area  off  the  coast  of  South  Carolina  and 
Georgia,  in  which  a  seed  trust  has  been  formed  by  the 
local  planters  to  prevent  anybody  outside  their  narrow 

252 


limits  from  raising  that  grade;  for  if  the  seed  is  renewed 
every  few  years,  the  fiber  can  be  profitably  raised  on  land 
now  covered  by  the  piney  woods.  Another  variety  of  the 
long  staple,  the  Floradora,  is  raised  inland.  The  river 
bottoms  and  deltas  of  the  numerous  streams  flowing  into 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  are  a  rich  field  for  cotton,  especially 
along  the  Mississippi  river;  but  the  Black  Belt  of  the 
interior  of  Georgia  and  Alabama  is  almost  equally  pro- 
ductive; and  the  piney  woods  district  and  considerable 
parts  of  the  uplands  may  be  brought  under  cotton  culti- 
vation. 

Northerners  do  not  understand  the  significance  of  the 
fertilizer  in  cotton  culture.  George  Washington  was  one 
of  the  few  planters  of  his  time  who  urged  his  people  to 
restore  the  vitality  of  their  land  as  fast  as  they  took  it 
out;  but  rare  was  the  planter  up  to  the  Civil  War  who 
raised  cattle,  and  the  imported  guano  from  the  rocky 
islets  of  the  Gulf  and  Pacific  was  little  used.  Then  in 
the  seventies  discoveries  were  made  of  phosphate  rocks 
in  the  estuaries  of  the  Carolina  rivers;  and  later,  inland 
deposits  in  Tennessee.  From  these,  with  some  admixture 
of  imported  materials,  are  made  commercial  fertilizers 
which  have  become  indispensable  to  a  large  number  of  the 
cotton  farmers,  so  that  they  are  now  spending  20  millions 
a  year  on  that  alone,  every  dollar  of  which  is  expected  to 
add  at  least  a  dollar  and  a  half  to  the  value  of  the  crop. 

The  word  "  plantation "  has  come  to  have  a  special 
meaning  in  Northern  ears.  It  brings  to  the  mind  the 
great  colonnaded  mansion  house  with  trim  whitewashed 
negro  quarters  grouped  about  it,  the  pickaninnies  running 
to  open  the  gate  for  the  four-in-hand  bringing  the  happy 
guests,  while  back  in  the  cotton  field  the  overseer  rides  to 
and  fro  cracking  his  blacksnake  whip.  That  kind  of  plan- 

253 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

tation  is  not  altogether  a  myth.  For  instance,  at  Her- 
mitage, just  outside  of  Savannah,  you  see  a  hrick  mansion 
of  a  few  large  rooms,  built  a  hundred  years  ago,  sur- 
rounded by  attractive  sunken  gardens,  and  one  of  the  most 
superb  groves  of  live  oaks  in  the  South;  and  near  it  are 
the  original  little  brick  slave  cabins  of  one  room  and  a 
chimney. 

That  kind  of  elaborate  place  was  rare;  in  most  cases 
the  ante-bellum  planter's  house  was  a  modest  building, 
and  nowadays  very  few  large  planters  live  regularly  on 
the  plantation.  If  the  place  is  profitable  enough,  the  fam- 
ily lives  in  the  nearest  town  or  city;  if  it  is  unprofitable, 
sooner  or  later  the  banks  get  it  and  the  family  goes  down ; 
even  where  the  old  house  is  preserved,  it  is  likely  to  be 
turned  over  to  the  manager,  or  becomes  a  nest  for  the  col- 
ored people.  Inasmuch  as  cotton  raising  is  an  industrial 
enterprise,  plantations  are  apt  to  change  hands,  or  the 
owners  may  put  in  new  managers ;  so  that  the  ante-bellum 
feeling  of  personal  relation  between  the  owner  and  the 
field  hand  plays  little  part  in  modern  cotton  making. 

The  modern  plantation  can  more  easily  be  described 
than  analyzed;  the  term  is  elastic;  a  young  man  will  tell 
you  that  he  has  "  bought  a  plantation  "  which  upon  in- 
quiry comes  down  to  a  little  place  of  less  than  a  hundred 
acres  with  two  houses.  The  distinction  between  a  "  farm  " 
and  a  "  plantation "  seems  to  be  that  the  latter  term  is 
applied  to  a  place  on  which  there  is  a  body  of  laborers 
(almost  universally  Negroes)  managed,  with  very  few  ex- 
ceptions, by  white  men  and  devoted  principally  to  one  crop. 

Individual  plantation  holdings  vary  in  size  from  the 
thirty  thousand  acres  of  Bell,  the  central  Alabama  planter, 
down  to  fifty  acres.  Many  large  owners  have  scattered 
plantations,  sometimes  as  many  as  twenty  or  thirty,  each 

254 


MAKING   COTTON 

carried  on  by  itself ;  or  two  or  three  adjacent  groups  under 
one  manager.  You  are  informed  that  the  X  brothers 
"own  thirty-three  plantations,"  which  probably  means 
thirty-three  different  large  farms,  ranging  from  two  hun- 
dred to  two  thousand  acres  each.  Three  to  five  thousand 
acres  of  land  under  cultivation  is  as  large  a  body  of  land 
as  seems  advantageous  to  handle  together. 

A  fair  example  of  the  large  plantation  in  the  best  cot- 
ton lands  is  the  estate  managed  by  Mr.  Dayton  near  Jones- 
ville,  La.,  on  the  Tensas  and  Little  rivers.  It  is  an  expanse 
of  that  incredibly  rich  land,  of  which  there  are  millions  of 
acres  in  this  enormous  delta,  land  which  has  in  many  places 
produced  fifty  to  seventy-five  successive  crops  of  cotton 
without  an  ounce  of  fertilizer.  Between  the  rivers,  which 
are  fenced  off  by  levees,  lie  the  fields,  originally  all  wooded, 
but  in  these  old  plantations  even  the  roots  have  disappeared 
from  the  open  fields,  although  wherever  the  plantation  is 
enlarged  the  woods  have  to  be  cleared,  and  the  gaunt  and 
fire-scarred  dead  trunks  mark  the  progress  of  cultivation. 

The  negro  houses  stand  in  the  middle  of  the  field;  for 
on  modern  plantations  it  is  very  rare  to  gather  the  hands 
in  quarters  near  the  great  house;  their  cabins  are  distrib- 
uted all  over  the  estate.  On  the  main  road  is  a  manager's 
house,  distinctly  better  than  any  of  the  negro  cabins. 
Near  by  a  white  family  is  moving  in  where  a  black  family 
has  moved  out,  for  this  plantation  (though  the  thing  is 
uncommon)  has  a  few  white  hands  working  alongside  the 
Negroes.  In  this  free  open,  in  the  breadth  of  the  fields 
and  the  width  of  the  turbid  streams,  alongside  the  endless 
procession  of  scenic  forests  in  the  background,  one  forgets 
the  long  hot  days  of  toil,  the  scanty  living,  the  ignorance 
and  debasement.  It  may  all  be  as  sordid  as  the  mines 
or  the  iron  works,  but  it  is  in  pure  air.  These  thousands 

255 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

of  broad  acres  with  their  mealy  brown  soil  bearing  the 
"  cotton- weed  "  (the  common  name  for  the  stalk  after  the 
cotton  is  picked)  are  a  type  of  the  lowland  South  from 
Texas  to  North  Carolina. 

A  plantation  of  somewhat  different  type  is  "  Sunny 
Side  "  in  Arkansas,  nearly  opposite  the  city  of  Greenville, 
Miss.  "  Sunny  Side  "  is  supposed  by  some  people  to  be 
extravagantly  conducted  because  there  are  three  or  four 
good  managers'  houses  on  the  estate,  and  because  there  is 
twenty-three  miles  of  light  railway  track.  Considering 
that  the  plantation  runs  eight  and  a  half  miles  along  the 
river,  and  that  all  its  products  and  supplies  would  other- 
wise need  to  be  hauled,  there  is  a  reason  for  the  railroad, 
whose  one  little  locomotive  fetches  and  carries  like  a  well- 
trained  dog;  and  it  is  a  special  privilege  of  all  the  people 
employed  on  the  estate  and  of  visitors  to  ride  back  and 
forth  as  their  occasions  require.  "  Sunny  Side,"  with  an 
adjacent  estate  under  the  same  management,  comprises 
about  12,000  acres,  of  which  4,700  acres,  including  broad 
hay  lands  and  extensive  corn  fields,  are  under  cultivation, 
and  the  remainder  is  in  timber;  considerable  areas  have 
been  cleared  in  recent  years.  The  annual  cotton  crop  is 
about  2,500  bales.  As  on  most  plantations,  the  houses  of  the 
hands  are  distributed  so  that  nobody  has  far  to  go  to  his 
work.  Twenty  to  thirty  acres  is  commonly  assigned  to 
a  family;  more  to  a  large  family,  and  the  lands  rented  at 
from  $6  to  $8  an  acre,  according  to  quality,  with  the  usual 
plantation  privileges  of  firewood,  a  house,  and  pasture  for 
draft  animals. 

Here  comes  in  one  of  the  most  important  complications 
in  cotton  culture.  Northern  wheat  is  usually  grown  by 
farmers  tilling  moderate-sized  farms,  either  as  owners  or 
as  money  renters;  a  third  or  more  of  the  cotton  is  raised 

256 


MAKING    COTTON 

in  the  same  way  by  farmers  or  small  planters  who  till  for 
themselves  or  employ  a  few  families  of  hands;  and  like 
the  wheat  farmers  they  look  on  the  land  as  a  tool.  On 
the  large  plantations,  where  perhaps  as  many  as  a  thou- 
sand people  are  busied  on  the  crop,  the  manager  looks 
upon  the  laborer  simply  as  an  element  of  production;  you 
must  have  seed,  rain,  and  the  niggers  in  order  to  get  a 
crop.  Even  the  most  kind-hearted  and  conscientious 
plantation  owner  cannot  avoid  this  feeling  that  the  labor- 
ers are,  like  the  live-stock,  a  part  of  the  implements;  he 
houses  them,  and  if  humane  and  far-sighted,  he  houses  them 
better  than  the  mules ;  he  "  furnishes  them  " — that  is,  he 
agrees  to  feed  them  and  allow  them  necessities  while  the 
crop  is  making.  All  this  is  practically  the  factory  system, 
with  the  unfavorable  addition  that  the  average  plantation 
hand  comes  near  the  category  of  unskilled  labor.  A  Negro 
brought  up  on  one  plantation  can  do  just  as  well  in  a 
plantation  ten  or  a  thousand  miles  away;  and  there  is  no 
subdivision  of  labor  except  for  the  few  necessary  mechan- 
ics. That  is,  cotton  planting  on  a  large  plantation  is 
an  industrial  enterprise  requiring  considerable  capital, 
trained  managers,  and  a  large  plant  of  buildings,  tools, 
animals  and  Negroes. 

A  characteristic  of  cotton  culture  is  that  it  requires 
attention  and  keeps  the  hands  busy  during  the  greater 
part  of  the  year.  The  first  process  is  to  break  the  ground, 
which  begins  as  early  as  January  1st,  then  about  March 
or  April  the  seed  is  dropped  in  long  rows,  and  during  the 
seeding  season  the  rural  schools  are  likely  to  stop  so  as  to 
give  the  children  the  opportunity  to  help.  In  the  seed 
there  is  great  room  for  improvement;  as  yet  the  Southern 
agricultural  colleges  seem  to  have  made  less  impression 
on  the  cotton  grower  than  their  brethren  in  the  North- 

257 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

western  states  have  made  on  the  corn  and  wheat  farming, 
for  some  large  and  otherwise  intelligent  planters  make 
very  little  effort  to  select  their  seed. 

When  the  cotton  is  once  up,  it  needs  the  most  patient 
care,  for  it  must  be  weeded  and  thinned  and  watched, 
and  is  gone  over  time  after  time.  The  "  riders  "  or  as- 
sistant managers  are  in  the  saddle  all  day  long,  and  a 
prudent  manager  casts  his  eye  on  every  plot  of  cultivated 
ground  on  his  plantation  every  day;  for  it  is  easy  to 
"get  into  the  grass,"  and  all  but  the  best  of  the  hands 
need  to  be  kept  moving. 

Then  comes  the  picking  of  the  cotton,  which  lasts  from 
August  into  February.  It  is  a  planter's  maxim  that  no 
negro  family  can  pick  the  cotton  that  it  can  raise,  and 
extra  help  has  to  be  found.  Here  is  one  of  the  large  items 
of  expense  in  raising  cotton,  for  the  fields  have  to  be  gone 
over  two,  three,  and  sometimes  four  times,  inasmuch  as 
the  cotton  does  not  all  mature  at  the  same  time,  and  if 
it  did,  no  machine  has  ever  been  invented  which  is  practical 
for  picking  cotton.  It  is  hand  work  to  the  end  of  the  year. 
There  is  a  plantation  saying  that  it  takes  thirteen  months 
to  make  a  cotton  crop,  and  it  is  true  that  plowing  for 
the  next  crop  begins  on  some  parts  of  the  plantation  before 
the  last  of  the  two  or  three  pickings  is  completed  on  other 
parts.  When  picked,  the  cotton  goes  into  little  storehouses  or 
into  the  cabins,  until  enough  accumulates  to  keep  the  gin 
busy. 

Everybody  in  the  great  cotton  districts  talks  about 
"  A  bale  to  the  acre  "  as  a  reasonable  yield,  but  one  of  the 
richest.counties  of  Mississippi  averages  only  half  a  bale, 
and  the  whole  South  averages  about  a  third  of  a  bale. 
What  is  a  bale  ?  The  "seed  cotton,"  so  called,  as  it  comes 
from  the  field,  has  the  brown  seeds  in  the  midst  of  the 

258 


MAKING   COTTON 

fiber,  and  the  first  process  is  to  gin  it — that  is  to  take  out 
the  seed,  and  at  the  same  time  to  make  it  into  the  standard 
package  for  handling.  This  requires  machinery,  originally 
invented  by  that  ingenious  Yankee  schoolmaster,  Eli  Whit- 
ney. There  are  about  38,000  of  these  ginneries,  some  hav- 
ing one  poor  little  old  gin,  others  five  or  six  of  the  latest 
machines  side  by  side,  with  air  suction  and  other  labor- 
saving  devices.  It  is  an  interesting  sight  to  see  the  fluffy 
stuff  wafted  up  into  the  gin  with  its  row  of  saw-teeth, 
and  then  blown  to  the  press,  where  a  plunger  comes  down 
time  after  time  until  the  man  who  runs  it  judges  that 
about  five  hundred  pounds  have  accumulated ;  then  another 
plunger  comes  up  from  below;  the  rectangular  mass  thus 
formed  is  enveloped  in  rough  sacking  and  fastened  with 
iron  cotton  ties.  The  completed  bale  is  then  turned  out, 
weighed,  numbered,  stamped,  and  recorded;  and  becomes 
one  of  the  thirteen  million  units  of  the  year's  crop;  but 
the  number  identifies  it,  and  any  particular  bale  of  cotton 
may  be  traced  back  to  the  plantation  from  which  it  came 
and  even  to  the  negro  family  that  raised  it.  Sea  Island  cot- 
ton has  a  much  woodier  plant,  and  the  seed  cotton  con- 
tains less  lint  and  more  numerous  although  smaller  seeds; 
hence  it  requires  special  picking,  a  special  gin,  cannot  be 
BO  compressed,  and  must  be  much  more  carefully  bagged. 
Sea  Island  cotton  at  23  cents  a  pound  is  thought  to  be  no 
more  profitable  than  the  short  staple  at  less  than  half  the 
price. 

About  1897  a  great  effort  was  made  to  substitute  a 
round  bale,  weighing  about  half  as  much  as  the  standard 
bale,  and  in  1902  the  output  reached  nearly  a  million.  It 
is  still  a  question  whether  that  package  is  not  an  improve- 
ment, but  the  machinery  was  more  expensive,  complaints 
were  made  that  the  round  bale  was  harder  to  stow  for 

259 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

export;  the  railroad  companies  refused  to  give  any  advan- 
tage in  freight  rates;  and  the  compressor  companies,  who 
are  closely  linked  in  with  the  railroads,  were  opposed  to  it 
altogether;  and  the  round  bale  has  almost  disappeared 
from  the  South.  Only  two  per  cent  of  the  cotton  is  thus 
baled. 

One  of  the  things  remarked  by  Duke  Bernhard  of  Saxe 
Weimar,  when  he  visited  the  South  in  1824,  was  that  the 
people  seemed  unaware  that  there  was  any  value  in  cotton 
seed.  Some  planters  put  it  on  the  field  as  a  fertilizer, 
where  it  has  some  value;  others  threw  it  away.  During 
the  last  twenty  years,  however,  the  cotton  seed  has  become 
a  great  factor  in  the  production.  About  one  third  the 
weight  of  the  seed  cotton  is  seed,  and  its  value  is  over  one 
tenth  that  of  the  baled  cotton.  In  the  high  cotton  year  of 
1906  the  cotton  seed  was  thought  to  be  worth  nearly 
ninety  millions.  Immense  quantities  go  to  the  oil  mills 
which  are  scattered  through  the  South.  Besides  the  clear 
oil  they  produce  oil  cake  which  is  used  as  a  food  for  ani- 
mals or  a  fertilizer.  The  seed  practically  adds  something 
more  than  a  cent  a  pound  to  the  value  of  the  product. 


CHAPTER   XIX 

COTTON  HANDS 

SO  far  cotton  cultivation  has  been  considered  as  though 
it  were  a  crop  which  came  of  itself,  like  the  rubber 
of  the  Brazilian  forests,  but  during  a  whole  century 
the  cultivation  of  cotton  has  had  a  direct  influence  on  the 
labor  system  and  the  whole  social  organization  of  the 
South.  Such  close  relations  sometimes  exist  in  other  com- 
modities ;  for  instance,  the  election  of  President  McKinley, 
in  1896,  seems  to  have  been  determined  by  a  sudden  rise  in 
the  price  of  wheat;  but  cotton  is  socially  and  politically  im- 
portant every  year,  because  upon  it  the  greater  part  of  the 
negro  labor  is  employed,  and  to  it  a  large  portion  of  the 
white  management  and  capital  is  devoted. 

Furthermore,  the  conditions  of  the  old  slavery  times 
are  more  nearly  reproduced  in  the  cotton  field  than  any- 
where else  in  the  South.  The  old  idea  that  the  normal 
function  of  the  African  race  is  field  labor  is  still  vital ;  and 
the  crude  and  unskilled  mass  of  Negroes  still  find  employ- 
ment in  which  they  succeed  tolerably  well.  As  in  slavery 
times,  the  cotton  hands  are  more  fixed  in  their  locality  than 
in  other  pursuits;  they  are  less  ambitious  to  move  about, 
and  find  their  way  more  close  hedged  in  if  they  try  to 
go  elsewhere.  The  relation  of  the  white  man  as  task- 
master to  the  Negro  as  a  deferential  class  is  still 
distinctly  maintained;  while  the  system  of  advances 

261 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

to   laborers   resembles   the   old   methods   of   feeding   the 
hands. 

The  Negro  is  not  the  sole  cotton  maker ;  fully  one  third 
of  the  cotton  in  the  South  is  never  touched  by  a  black 
hand,  being  raised  by  small  white  farmers  both  in  the  low- 
lands and  in  the  hill  regions,  who  produce  one,  two,  or 
more  bales  a  year  and  depend  upon  that  crop  to  pay  their 
store  bills.  Something  like  one  sixth  of  the  crop  is  raised 
by  independent  negro  land  owners  or  renters  working  for 
themselves;  this  leaves  nearly  or  quite  one  half  the  crop 
to  negro  labor  under  the  superintendence  of  white  owners 
or  managers. 

Even  where  the  Negro  is  employed  on  wages,  he  looks 
on  himself  as  part  of  the  concern  and  expects  due  consid- 
eration in  return  for  what  Stone  calls  the  "  proprietary 
interest  he  feels  in  the  plantation  at  large,  his  sense  of 
being  part  and  parcel  of  a  large  plantation.  Then,  too, 
there  is  his  never-failing  assurance  of  ability  to  pay  his 
account,  no  matter  how  large,  by  his  labor,  when  it  is  not 
too  wet  or  too  cold,  his  respect,  and  his  implicit  and  gen- 
erally cheerful  obedience." 

Inasmuch  as  more  than  half  the  Negroes  are  raising  cot- 
ton, and  most  of  the  others  are  working  on  farms,  it  is 
important  to  know  what  kind  of  laborers  they  make.  It  is 
the  opinion  of  their  greatest  leader,  Booker  Washington, 
that  the  best  place  for  the  Negro  is  in  the  rural  South, 
and  that  he  is  not  fitted  for  the  strife  of  the  great  cities 
South  or  North.  Is  he  perfectly  fitted  for  any  service  ?  Is 
it  true,  as  one  of  the  employers  of  Negroes  alleges,  that 
"  their  actions  have  no  logical  or  reasonable  basis,  that 
they  are  notional  and  whimsical,  and  that  they  are  con- 
trolled far  more  by  their  fancies  than  by  their  common 
sense  ?  " 

263 


COTTON   HANDS 

In  cotton  culture  there  is  little  to  elevate  a  man.  One 
of  the  numerous  errors  flying  about  is  that  the  slave  in 
the  cotton  fields  was  a  skilled  laborer,  and  that  there  is 
intellectual  training  in  planting,  weeding,  and  picking. 
The  owner  or  renter  must  of  course  accustom  his  mind  to 
consider  the  important  questions  of  the  times  of  plow- 
ing and  seeding,  and  he  must  submit  to  the  anxiety  which 
besets  the  farmer  all  over  the  world;  but  cotton  culture  is 
a  monotonous  thing,  the  handling  of  the  few  tools  is  at 
best  a  matter  of  dexterity,  and  the  only  man  who  gets  an 
intellectual  training  out  of  it  is  the  manager.  When  cot- 
ton is  high,  a  plantation  is  a  more  or  less  speculative  in- 
vestment, and  many  people  who  save  money  put  it  into 
land  and  hire  a  manager.  Cotton  broking  and  banking 
firms  sometimes  carry  on  plantations  of  their  own.  City 
bankers  and  heavy  men  get  plantations  on  mortgage,  or  by 
purchase ;  and  banks  sometimes  own  too  much  of  this  kind 
of  property. 

Of  course  many  planters  run  their  own  plantations; 
but  on  all  large  estates,  and  many  small  ones,  there  is  a 
manager  who  is  virtually  the  old  overseer  over  again. 
Commonly  he  is  a  good  specimen  of  the  lower  class  of  the 
white  population ;  in  a  very  few  cases  he  is  a  Negro.  Suc- 
cessful managers  command  a  salary  as  high  as  $3,000  a 
year  or  more,  and  have  some  opportunity  to  plant  on  their 
own  account ;  business  sense  such  a  man  must  have,  but 
above  all  he  must  be  able  to  "  handle  niggers/'  an  art  in 
which,  by  common  consent,  most  Northern  owners  of  cot- 
ton land  are  wanting.  On  a  large  plantation  there  will 
also  be  one  or  more  assistant  managers,  commonly  called 
"  riders  " ;  a  bookkeeper,  who  may  be  an  important  func- 
tionary ;  a  plantation  doctor,  sometimes  on  contract,  some- 
times taking  patients  as  they  come  and  charging  their 

263 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

bills  on  the  books  of  the  plantation.  On  one  plantation 
employing  a  hundred  and  thirty  Italian  families  there  is 
even  a  plantation  priest. 

The  manager  subdivides  the  estate  into  plots,  or 
"  plows  " — you  hear  the  expression  "  he  has  a  fifteen-plow 
farm  "—of  from  ten  to  thirty-five  acres,  according  to  the 
number  of  working  hands  in  the  squad  that  takes  it.  A 
"  one-mule  farm  "  is  about  thirty  acres.  He  settles  what 
crop  shall  be  grown;  some  insist  that  part  of  the  acreage 
be  planted  in  corn,  others  raise  all  the  corn  for  the  estate 
on  land  worked  by  day  hands.  The  secret  of  success  is 
unceasing  watchfulness  of  all  the  details,  and  especially 
of  the  labor  of  the  hands. 

Outside  of  the  administrative  force  and  their  families 
there  are  commonly  no  white  people  on  a  cotton  planta- 
tion. The  occasional  white  hands  make  the  same  kind  of 
contracts,  live  in  the  same  houses,  and  accept  the  same  con- 
ditions as  the  Negroes ;  but  their  number  is  small  and  they 
are  likely  to  drift  out  either  into  cotton  mills  or  into  saw- 
mill and  timber  work.  The  foreign  agricultural  laborers, 
as  has  been  shown  in  the  chapter  on  immigration,  are  few 
in  number.  The  Germans,  the  so-called  Austrians,  the  few 
Bulgarians,  Greeks,  Syrians,  and  Italians,  all  taken  to- 
gether, are  probably  less  than  10,000,  and  there  seems  little 
reason  to  suppose  that  their  number  will  soon  increase. 
The  main  source  of  plantation  labor  has  always  been  the 
Negroes  who  furnish  about  two  million  workers  on  other 
people's  land,  and  with  their  families  make  up  more  than 
half  of  all  the  Negroes  in  the  United  States. 

With  their  families — for  the  unit  on  the  plantation  is 
not  a  hand,  but  a  family,  or  where  three  or  four  unmar- 
ried men  or  unmarried  women  work  together,  a  gang.  This 
practice,  combined  with  the  child  labor  in  cotton  mills, 

264 


COTTON   HANDS 

accounts  for  the  large  number  of  persons  under  fifteen 
years  old — more  than  half  the  boys  in  some  states — who 
are  employed  in  gainful  occupations.  This  is  one  of  the 
most  striking  divergences  from  any  kind  of  Northern  farm- 
ing where  plenty  of  farmers'  wives  ride  the  mowing  ma- 
chine, and  farmers'  sisters  pick  fruit,  and  farmers'  chil- 
dren drop  potatoes,  where  foreign  women  often  work  in 
garden  patches,  but  where  people  do  not  habitually  employ 
women  and  children  at  heavy  field  labor. 

The  best  Negroes,  unless  they  own  land  of  their  own, 
seek  the  form  of  contract  most  advantageous  to  themselves, 
paying  either  a  money  rent  of  two  dollars  to  eight  dol- 
lars an  acre,  or  an  equivalent  cotton  rent.  It  is  generally 
believed  that  the  renters  are  the  people  most  likely  to  save 
money  and  buy  property  for  themselves.  In  Dunleith, 
Mississippi,  a  crew  of  seven  people  came  in  with  a  hundred 
dollars'  worth  of  property,  and  three  years  later  went  away 
with  more  than  a  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  accumulated 
stock,  tools  and  personal  property.  A  renter  must  have 
animals  of  his  own,  and  is  obliged  to  feed  them  and  to 
keep  up  his  tools.  Some  planters  find  that  renters  leave 
them  just  as  they  are  doing  well,  and  that  the  land  is 
skinned  by  them.  In  general,  however,  a  Negro  who  has 
the  necessary  mules  can  always  find  a  chance  to  rent  land. 

The  share  hand  or  cropper  is  next  in  point  of  thrift; 
the  planter  furnishes  him  house,  wood,  seed,  animals,  and 
implements;  and  at  the  end  of  the  year  the  value  of  the 
crop  is  divided  between  owner  and  tenant,  either  half  and 
half  or  "  three  fifths  and  four  fifths,"  which  means  that 
the  Negro  gets  three  fifths  of  the  cotton  and  four  fifths  of 
the  corn. 

A  third  class  is  the  wage  hands,  who  in  general  have 
not  the  ability  to  rent  land  on  any  terms;  they  receive  a 

265 


THE    SOUTHEKN    SOUTH 

house  and  fuel,  and  wages,  from  fifteen  dollars  a  month  up 
to  a  dollar  a  day.  Where  steady  wage  hands  can  he  found, 
this  is  considered  the  best  arrangement  for  the  planter. 

Renters  and  croppers  may  be  supplemented  by  extra 
work,  paid  for  by  them,  or  charged  to  them.  If  they  get 
into  a  tight  place  with  their  cotton,  the  manager  sends 
wage  hands  to  their  aid,  and  at  picking  time  all  available 
help  of  all  ages  is  scraped  together  and  sent  out  according 
to  the  needs  of  the  plantation.  Of  course,  a  renter  or  a 
"  cropper  "  may  allow  members  of  his  family  to  work  for 
others,  if  he  cannot  keep  them  busy.  On  some  plantations 
tenants  pay  on  an  average  nearly  a  hundred  dollars  a  year 
for  this  extra  help. 

During  the  five  years  from  1903  to  1907  there  was  a 
phenomenal  demand  for  cotton  hands,  and  planters  were 
eager  to  get  anybody  that  looked  like  work;  hence  the 
Xegro  had  the  agreeable  sensation  of  seeing  people  compete 
for  him.  Of  course,  if,  at  the  "  change  of  the  year  "  (Jan- 
uary 1st),  the  Negro  moves  to  one  planter,  he  moves  away 
from  another,  and  the  man  thus  left  behind  has  gloomy 
view  of  the  fickleness  and  instability  of  the  negro  race. 
One  of  the  best  managed  plantations  in  the  Delta  of  Missis- 
sippi, supposed  to  be  very  profitable,  has  seen  such  a  shift 
that  at  the  end  of  five  years  hardly  one  of  the  original 
hands  was  on  the  place.  Other  planters  in  that  region 
equally  successful  in  making  money  say  that  they  have 
little  or  no  trouble  with  negro  families  moving,  and  there 
seems  no  good  reason  to  believe  that  they  are  more  restless 
than  any  other  laborers.  It  is,  of  course,  highly  discour- 
aging for  a  planter  who  has  made  every  effort  by  improved 
houses,  just  treatment  and  clear  accounts,  to  satisfy  his 
people,  to  see  them  slipping  away  to  neighbors  who  are 
notoriously  hard,  unjust,  and  shifty.  While  he  remains  on 

266 


COTTON   HANDS 

a  plantation,  the  Negro  feels,  says  a  planter,  "  the  cer- 
tainty, in  his  own  mind,  that  he  himself  is  necessary  to  its 
success." 

It  is  this  dissatisfaction  with  the  negro  laborer  which 
has  led  to  the  efforts,  described  above,  to  bring  in  foreigners, 
efforts  which  have  been  so  far  quite  unsuccessful,  first,  be- 
cause the  number  of  people  that  could  be  induced  to  come 
is  too  small  to  affect  the  South,  and  secondl}',  because  few 
of  them  mean  to  remain  as  permanent  day  laborers.  Since 
the  South  seems  better  fitted  than  any  other  part  of  the 
earth  for  the  cultivation  of  cotton,  since  at  any  price  above 
six  cents  a  pound  there  is  some  profit  in  the  business,  and 
at  the  prices  prevailing  during  the  last  five  years  a  large 
profit,  it  seems  certain  that  the  Negro  will  be  steadily  de- 
sired as  a  cotton  hand;  and  the  question  comes  down  to 
that  suggested  by  Nicholas  Worth :  "  There  ought  to  be  a 
thousand  schools,  it  seemed  to  me,  that  should  have  the 
aim  of  Hampton.  Else  how  could  the  negroes — even  a 
small  percentage  of  them — ever  be  touched  by  any  train- 
ing at  all?  And  if  they  were  not  to  be  trained  in  a  way 
that  would  make  the  cotton  fields  cleaner  and  more  pro- 
ductive, how  should  our  upbuilding  go  on?  For  it  must 
never  be  forgotten  that  the  very  basis  of  civilization  here 
is  always  to  be  found  in  cotton." 

If  the  master  sometimes  is  dissatisfied  with  the  laborer, 
the  Negro  in  his  turn  has  his  own  complaints,  which 
Booker  Washington  has  summed  up  as  follows :  "  Poor 
dwelling-houses,  loss  of  earnings  each  year  because  of  un- 
scrupulous employers,  high-priced  provisions,  poor  school- 
houses,  short  school  terms,  poor  school-teachers,  bad  treat- 
ment generally,  lynchings  and  whitecapping,  fear  of  the 
practice  of  peonage,  a  general  lack  of  police  protection,  and 
want  of  encouragement."  In  this  list  several  of  the  items 
18  267 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

refer  to  the  plantation  system  of  accounts,  which  cannot  be 
understood  without  some  explanation  of  the  advance  sys- 
tem. 

In  slavery  times  plantation  owners  got  into  the 
habit  of  spending  their  crop  before  it  was  grown,  and  that 
is  still  the  practice  of  by  far  the  greater  number  of  cot- 
ton planters  and  farmers,  large  and  small.  In  flush  times 
agents  of  large  cotton  brokers  and  wholesale  establishments 
literally  press  check  books  into  the  hands  of  planters  and 
invite  them  to  use  credit  or  cash  to  their  hearts'  content. 
There  is  some  justification  in  the  system  as  applied  to 
cotton  culture,  which  over  large  areas  is  the  only  sale  crop ; 
and  under  which  (for  the  same  system  runs  down  to  the 
very  bottom)  the  planters  themselves  are  in  the  habit  of 
making  advances  to  their  tenants  and  hands.  The  white 
and  negro  land  owner  commonly  make  arrangements  "  to 
be  furnished  "  by  the  nearest  country  storekeeper ;  or  by  a 
store  or  bank,  or  white  friend  in  the  nearest  city.  On  the 
plantation,  the  planter  himself  commonly  furnishes  his  own 
hands,  and  has  a  store  or  "  commissary  "  for  that  purpose. 
Neither  banker  nor  planter  expects  to  lose  money ;  both  are 
subject  to  heavy  deductions  by  the  failure  of  planters  and 
the  departure  of  hands,  and  hence  they  recoup  themselves 
from  those  who  will  pay.  The  effect  is,  of  course,  that 
when  the  cotton  is  sold  and  accounted  for,  the  planter  and 
his  hand  alike  may  not  have  any  surplus  to  show,  and  be- 
gin the  new  year  in  debt.  And  the  same  round  may  be 
gone  over  again  year  by  year  during  a  lifetime. 

The  system  is  enforced  by  lien  loans,  through  which  the 
crop  is  the  security  for  the  loan,  and  in  addition  it  is  cus- 
tomary for  the  small  farmer  to  mortgage  mules,  tools,  and 
whatever  else  he  may  have.  As  Stone  explains :  "  The 
factor's  method  of  self-protection  is  to  take  a  deed  of 

268 


COTTON    HANDS 

trust  on  the  live  stock  and  prospective  crop,  and  is  the 
same  whether  the  applicant  be  a  two-mule  Negro  renter,  or 
the  white  owner  of  a  thousand  acres  of  land,  wanting  ten 
thousand  dollars  of  advances.  .  .  .  There  is,  however,  this 
difference:  the  white  man  gets  his  advances  in  cash,  avail- 
able at  stated  intervals,  while  the  Negro  gets  the  most  of 
his  in  the  shape  of  supplies."  Many  people  believe  that  the 
whole  crop  lien  system  is  an  incentive  to  debt,  that  if  it 
were  abolished  people  would  have  to  depend  upon  their 
character  and  credit;  and  hence  a  determined  effort  was 
made  in  South  Carolina  in  1908  to  repeal  the  lien  law  out- 
right. 

The  obvious  defects  of  this  system,  the  tendency  to  ex- 
travagance, the  not  knowing  where  you  stand,  the  preven- 
tion of  saving  habits,  are  aggravated  for  the  Negro  because 
the  white  man  keeps  the  books.  The  Negro  is  ac- 
customed to  be  charged  prices  which  in  many  cases  are  a 
half  higher  than  the  cash  price  of  the  same  article  in  the 
nearby  stores;  he  knows  that  there  will  be  an  interest 
charge  at  the  rate  of  from  ten  per  cent  to  forty  per  cent  on 
his  running  account,  and  he  suspects  (sometimes  with 
reason)  that  the  bookkeeping  is  careless  or  fraudulent. 
Some  planters  make  a  practice  of  ending  the  settlement  of 
every  account  with  a  row,  and  the  consequent  frame  of 
mind  of  the  Negro  is  illustrated  by  a  stock  story.  A  Negro 
has  been  trading  with  a  local  merchant  and  goes  to  a  new 
store  because  they  offer  twelve  pounds  of  sugar  for  a  dol- 
lar instead  of  ten.  On  his  way  back  he  passes  the  old 
place,  where  they  ask  him  in,  weigh  up  his  sugar,  and  show 
him  that  he  has  actually  only  nine  pounds  instead  of  twelve. 
"  Yes,  boss,  dat's  so,  but  after  all,  perhaps  he  didn't  get 
the  best  of  it ;  while  he  was  weighing  out  that  sugar,  I 
slips  dis  yere  pair  of  shoes  into  my  basket." 

269 


THE    SOUTHERN   SOUTH 

The  story  precisely  illustrates  the  futility  of  cheating 
the  Negro ;  for  whenever  he  thinks  his  accounts  are  juggled, 
he  will  see  to  it  that  his  labor  is  no  more  conscientious  than 
the  bookkeeper's.  Many  of  the  really  long-headed  planters 
see  that  the  less  the  relations  of  employer  and  hand  are 
matters  of  favor,  and  the  more  they  become  affairs  of  busi- 
ness, the  easier  it  will  be  to  get  on  with  their  hands.  Many 
of  them  have  a  fixed  basis  for  advances,  not  more  than 
about  fifteen  dollars  a  month  for  a  family,  and  that  in 
provisions  only ;  others  keep  no  book  accounts  for  such  ad- 
vances, but  issue  coupon  books  of  say  fifteen  dollars  every 
month.  A  few  pay  their  wage  hands  and  give  out  the  ad- 
vances in  cash,  allowing  people  to  buy  where  they  will.  A 
very  few  decline  to  have  anything  to  do  with  advances  in 
any  form;  but  inasmuch  as  the  Negroes  must  eat,  in  such 
cases  the  hands  usually  get  somebody  else  to  furnish  them. 
Some  planters  close  up  their  accounts  at  the  end  of  the  year, 
compelling  the  Negroes  to  turn  in  whatever  they  have  in 
property  to  close  out  their  accounts,  and  then  start  in 
afresh. 

All  these  are  only  palliatives ;  the  net  effect  of  the  sys- 
tem of  advances  to  hands  is  to  accentuate  the  industrial 
character  of  the  cotton  plantation.  A  big  plantation  in 
central  Alabama  or  the  Delta  of  Mississippi  cannot  be  com- 
pared with  any  Northern  farms,  nor  even  with  the  great 
ranches  of  California ;  it  is  very  like  a  coal  mine  back  in  a 
cove  of  the  mountains  of  Pennsylvania;  the  same  forlorn 
houses,  the  same  company  store,  the  same  system  of  store 
orders  and  charges;  only  the  coal  mine  sells  its  product 
from  day  to  day  and  pays  any  differences  in  cash  at  the  end 
of  the  month,  while  the  cotton  hand  must  wait  till  his 
particular  bale  is  sold  at  the  end  of  the  season,  before  he 
can  draw  his  profit.  The  Negro  is  therefore  less  likely  than 

270  • 


COTTON   HANDS 


the  miner  to  lay  up  money,  and  is  even  more  at  the  mercy 
of  the  company's  bookkeeper. 

Here  is  an  actual  annual  account  of  a  plantation  family 
in  the  Delta  of  Mississippi,  two  adults  and  one  child,  poor 
workers : 


Debit 

Credit 

Doctor  

$24.45 

Cotton.  .  .  . 

$498.57 

Mule          

33.00 

Cotton  seed 

91.00 

Clothing  

53.40 

Rations  

60.00 

Feed  

11.25 

$589.57 

Rent      

130.50 

Extra  labor 

17945 

Seed  

11.90 

Ginning  

43.50 

Cash  down  

53.50 

Debit. 

$11.38 

600.95 

$600.95 

These  people  got  their  living  and  sixty-six  dollars  in 
cash  and  credit  during  the  year;  but  the  charge  for  extra 
labor  shows  that  they  were  shiftless  and  did  not  work  out 
their  own  crop.  On  the  same  plantation  an  industrious 
family  of  three  adults  and  one  child  earned  in  a  year  $974, 
of  which  $450  was  net  cash. 

An  examination  of  various  plantation  accounts  reveals 
the  fact  that  the  actual  earnings  of  the  negro  hands,  if 
industrious,  are  considerably  greater  than  the  average  for 
the  Pennsylvania  miners,  but  of  course  the  whole  family 
works  in  the  fields.  The  renters  could  do  still  better  if 
they  had  money  enough  to  carry  them  through  the  year; 
on  a  prosperous  plantation  in  Arkansas,  only  about  one 
fortieth  of  all  the  negro  gangs  kept  off  the  books  of  tbe 
company  and  drew  their  earnings  in  cash  at  the  end  of  the 

271 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

year,  while  two  thirds  of  the  Italians  employed  on  the 
same  plantation  had  no  store  accounts.  In  fact  there  is 
eome  complaint  that  the  Italians  club  together  and  buy 
their  provisions  at  wholesale. 

The  advance  system  is  complicated  by  a  system  of 
"  Christmas  Money."  You  hear  planters  bitterly  cursing 
the  Negroes  who  have  demanded  $25,  $50,  or  $100  to  spend 
at  Christmas  time,  as  though  the  money  were  not  charged 
against  the  Negro  to  be  deducted  at  the  end  of  the  year; 
and  as  though  it  were  not  so  advanced  in  order  to  induce 
the  Negro  to  make  a  contract  Math  them.  Many  planters 
refuse  to  give  Christmas  money  and  yet  fill  up  their  plan- 
tation houses.  It  is  all  part  of  a  vicious  system ;  the  wage 
hands  have  to  be  paid  somehow,  though  often  not  com- 
pletely paid  up  till  tlje  end  of  the  year ;  the  share  hands  and 
renters  are  carried  by  the  planter  because  they  always  have 
been  carried ;  and  because  bad  planters  can  take  advantage 
of  this  opportunity  to  squeeze  their  hands.  The  difficulty 
is  one  known  in  other  lands;  in  Ceylon,  for  instance,  the 
laborers  on  tea  and  rubber  estates  draw  advances,  carry 
debts  which  have  to  be  assumed  by  a  new  employer,  trade 
at  a  "  caddy,"  which  is  the  same  thing  as  a  commissary, 
and  complain  of  the  accounts. 

The  system  is  just  as  vicious  for  the  small  land  owners 
both  negro  and  white.  Most  Southern  states  under  their 
crop  lien  law  allow  the  growing  crop  to  be  mortgaged  for 
cash  or  advances,  and  hence  any  farmer  has  credit  for 
supplies  or  loans  up  to  the  probable  value  of  the  crop  when 
marketed.  That  value  is  variable,  the  advances  are  clogged 
with  interest  and  overcharges,  and  the  whole  system  is 
a  heavy  draft  on  the  country.  There  are  money  sharks  in 
the  Southern  country  as  well  as  in  the  Northern  cities,  and 
many  scandalous  transactions.  One  man  in  Alabama  has 

272 


COTTON    HANDS 

2,500  Negroes  on  his  books  for  loans,  in  some  cases  for  a 
loan  of  $5  with  interest  charges  of  $1.50  a  month.  Cases 
have  been  known  where  a  Negro  brought  to  a  plantation 
his  mules  and  stock,  worked  a  season,  and  at  the  end  saw 
all  his  crop  of  cotton  taken,  and  his  property  swept  up,  in- 
cluding the  mules,  which  are  exempt  by  law.  Many  back 
plantations  take  the  seed  for  the  ginning — that  is,  they 
exact  more  than  twice  what  the  service  is  worth.  A  Negro 
has  been  known  to  borrow  say  $200 ;  when  it  was  not  paid, 
the  white  lender  seized  on  all  his  possessions,  and  without 
going  through  any  legal  formality  gave  him  credit  for 
$100,  leaving  the  balance  of  the  debt  hanging  over  his 
head.  A  peddler  has  been  known  to  insist  on  leaving  a 
clock  at  the  house  of  a  poor  colored  woman  who  protested 
that  she  did  not  want  a  clock,  could  not  afford  a  clock  and 
would  not  take  a  clock.  The  man  drove  off,  returned  some 
months  later,  demanded  payment  for  the  clock  which  was 
just  where  he  left  it,  never  having  been  started,  and  when 
the  money  was  not  forthcoming  proceeded  to  take  away  the 
woman's  chickens — her  poor  little  livelihood.  She  ran  to 
a  white  neighbor,  who  came  back  with  her  and  turned  the 
scoundrel  out.  There  is  first  and  last  much  of  this  ad- 
vantage taken  of  the  ignorance  and  poverty  of  the  Negro; 
a  certain  type  of  planter  declares  that  he  can  make  more 
money  out  of  an  ignorant  black  than  out  of  an  educated 
one.  As  one  of  the  white  friends  of  the  colored  race  in 
the  South  says,  the  Negroes  must  receive  at  least  sufficient 
education  to  enable  them  to  protect  themselves  against 
such  exaction. 

Considering  the  immense  importance  of  cotton  to  the 
South,  it  is  amazing  how  wasteful  is  its  culture  and  its 
distribution.  Experts  say  that  a  great  part  of  the  cost  of 
fertilizers  could  be  saved  by  cultivating  the  cow  pea. 

273 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

About  six  per  cent  of  the  value  of  the  fiber — a  trifle  of  forty 
million  dollars — is  seriously  injured  by  ginning.  Compar- 
atively few  farmers  or  planters  select  their  seed,  though 
several  of  the  Southern  agricultural  colleges  have  set  up 
cotton  schools,  and  the  president  of  the  Mississippi  Agri- 
cultural and  Mechanical  College  has  actually  begun  to  hold 
farmers'  institutes  for  the  negro  farmers.  The  cotton  bale 
is  probably  the  most  careless  package  used  for  a  valuable 
product.  It  sometimes  literally  drops  to  pieces  before  it 
reaches  the  consumer;  and  of  course  the  grower,  in  the 
long  run,  loses  by  the  poor  quality  or  the  poor  packing  of 
his  product.  The  grading  of  cotton  requires  that  a  large 
quantity  be  brought  together  in  one  place,  and  the  small 
grower  gets  little  advantage  out  of  improvement  in  his 
staple. 

What  the  South  most  needs  in  cotton  is  the  improve- 
ment of  the  labor.  As  President  Hardy,  of  the  Mississippi 
Agricultural  College,  says :  "  So  many  of  our  negroes  are 
directing  their  own  work  that  their  efficiency  must  be  pre- 
served and  increased  or  great  injury  will  result  to  our 
whole  economic  system.  The  prosperity  of  our  section  as 
a  whole  is  affected  by  the  productive  capacity  of 
every  individual  in  our  midst.  The  negro's  inefficiency  is 
a  great  financial  drain  on  the  South,  and  I  believe  this 
farmers'  institute  work  for  the  negro  is  the  beginning  of 
a  permanent  policy  that  will  be  very  far-reaching  in  its 
results.  There  is  no  doubt  that  this  is  one  of  the  ways 
of  increasing  the  cotton  production  of  the  country  that  has 
heretofore  received  very  little  attention." 

It  remains  to  consider  the  relation  of  the  race  question 
to  cotton  manufacture.  Long  before  the  Civil  War  it  was 
seen  that  the  Southern  staple  was  being  sent  to  foreign 
countries  and  to  the  North  to  be  manufactured,  and  that 

274 


COTTON   HANDS 

the  South  was  buying  back  its  own  material  in  cotton 
goods ;  therefore  some  cotton  mills  were  constructed  in  the 
South.  The  labor  in  these  mills  seems  to  have  been  entirely 
white,  but  their  product,  which  was  of  the  coarser  qualities, 
was  never  large  enough  to  control  the  market.  About  1880 
came  a  new  era  of  cotton  manufacture,  aided  first  by  the 
extension  of  the  railway  system,  second  by  the  develop- 
ment of  water  power,  and  third  by  the  discovery  that  the 
poor  whites  make  a  tolerable  mill  population.  Hence  grew 
up  a  chain  of  flourishing  factory  towns,  most  of  them  on 
or  near  the  "  fall  line/'  so  as  to  take  advantage  of  the 
water  powers,  and  there  has  been  a  steady  growth  of  South- 
ern manufactures.  In  1887  the  Southern  mills  worked  up 
only  400,000  bales,  which  was  one  fifth  of  the  staple  used 
for  manufactures  in  the  United  States.  Twenty  years 
later  they  were  making  up  2,400,000  bales,  which  was 
one  half  the  consumption.  The  state  of  South  Carolina 
alone  in  1905  produced  manufactures  to  the  amount  of 
$79,000,000. 

The  first  thing  to  notice  in  this  manufacture  is  that  the 
mill  hands  are  still  exclusively  white.  Several  efforts  have 
been  made  in  Columbia,  Charleston,  and  elsewhere  to  carry 
on  cotton  mills  with  negro  labor,  and  a  few  negro  capital- 
ists have  built  mills  in  which  they  expected  to  employ  peo- 
ple of  their  own  race ;  but  every  one  of  these  experiments 
seems  to  have  been  a  failure,  partly  because  of  the  igno- 
rance of  the  average  Negro  who  could  be  drawn  into  the  in- 
dustry, and  partly  because  of  his  irregularity.  The  Poor 
Whites  do  not  make  by  any  means  the  best  mill  help,  and 
their  output  of  yards  per  hand  is  considerably  less  than 
that  in  the  Northern  states.  The  supply  of  white  labor 
also  shows  signs  of  depletion,  though  Mountain  Whites  are 
being  brought  down;  it  is  still  a  question  whether  they 

275 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

will  settle  in  the  new  places,  or  whether  after  they  have 
saved  money  they  will  return  to  their  mountains.  Hence 
the  frantic  efforts  to  bring  in  mill  hands  from  outside  the 
South.  Northern  hands  will  not  accept  a  lower  wage  scale 
and  do  not  like  the  social  conditions.  It  is  plain  that  the 
Southern  cotton  manufacture  is  entirely  dependent  upon 
the  supply  of  native  white  labor. 

Notwithstanding  the  great  growth  of  cotton  manufacture 
in  the  South,  the  fine  qualities  are  still  made  elsewhere; 
and  the  capital  employed,  the  total  wages  paid,  and  the 
value  of  output  are  much  greater  in  the  North.  The  value 
of  the  product  in  South  Carolina  rose  between  1890  and 
1905  from  $10,000,000  to  $50,000,000,  but  in  the  same 
period  the  value  in  Massachusetts  rose  from  $100,000,000 
to  $130,000,000.  The  output  of  cotton  goods  in  Colum- 
bia, $5,000,000  is  less  than  half  the  output  of  Nashua, 
New  Hampshire.  The  New  England  states  still  fur- 
nish nearly  one  half  the  output  of  cotton  manufactures, 
measured  by  value.  The  Northern  states  as  a  whole  pay 
$65,000,000  a  year  for  wages  against  $27,000,000  in  the 
South;  and  their  product  is  $270,000,000  against  $268,- 
000,000  in  the  South.  It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  the 
scepter  for  cotton  manufacture  has  not  yet  passed  into  the 
hands  of  the  South. 

The  discussion  of  the  economic  forces  and  tendencies  of 
the  South  in  the  last  three  chapters  may  now  be  briefly 
recapitulated.  The  South  is  a  prosperous  and  advancing 
region  on  the  highway  to  wealth,  but  advancing  rather  more 
slowly  than  other  agricultural  sections  of  the  country,  and 
in  material  wealth  far  behind  the  West  and  farther  behind 
the  Middle  states  and  New  England.  It  will  be  several 
decades  before  the  South  can  possibly  have  as  much  accu- 
mulation as  that  now  in  possession  of  the  region  which 

276 


COTTON   HANDS 

most  resembles  it  in  the  United  States,  the  Middle  West 
and  Far  West.  Of  its  sources  of  wealth,  the  timber  is 
temporary,  mining  and  iron  making  limited  in  area.  The 
chief  employment  must  always  be  agriculture,  and  particu- 
larly cotton.  Cotton  culture  on  a  large  scale,  as  now  car- 
ried on,  is  an  industrial  enterprise  in  which  the  laborer  is 
likely  to  be  exploited.  The  advance  system  is  a  curse  to 
the  South,  inciting  to  extravagance  and  leading  to  dreams 
of  wealth  not  yet  created;  it  is  especially  bad  for  the 
Negro,  who  is  at  his  best  as  a  renter,  or  still  more  as  the 
owner  of  land.  Economically  the  progress  of  the  negro 
laborer  is  very  slow,  but  he  is  absolutely  necessary  to  the 
welfare  of  the  South,  for  no  substitute  can  be  discerned. 


CHAPTER    XX 

PEONAGE 

FEOM  the  earlier  chapters  on  the  Negroes  and  on  the 
Cotton  Hands  it  is  plain  that  the  Southern  agricul- 
tural laborer  is  unsatisfactory  to  his  employer,  and 
not  happy  in  himself;  that  the  two  races,  though  allied, 
are  yet  in  disharmony.  Of  recent  years  a  new  or  rather  a 
renewed  cause  of  race  hostility  has  been  found,  because  the 
great  demand  for  labor,  chiefly  in  the  cotton  fields,  gives  rise 
to  the  startling  abuse  of  a  system  of  forced  labor,  commonly 
called  peonage,  which  at  the  mildest  is  the  practice  of 
thrashing  a  hand  who  misbehaves  on  the  plantation,  and 
in  its  farthest  extent  is  virtually  slavery.  For  this  system 
the  white  race  is  solely  acountable,  inasmuch  as  it  is  the 
work  of  white  men,  sometimes  under  the  protection  of  laws 
made  by  white  legislatures,  and  always  because  of  an  in- 
sufficient public  sentiment  among  white  people. 

When  the  slaves  were  set  free,  the  federal  government 
was  careful  to  protect  them  against  a  relapse  into  bondage. 
The  Thirteenth  Amendment,  which  went  into  effect  in 
1865,  absolutely  prohibited  "  slavery  or  involuntary  servi- 
tude except  as  a  punishment  for  crime  whereof  the  party 
shall  have  been  duly  convicted."  In  addition,  in  1867,  an 
act  of  Congress  formally  prohibited  "  the  system  known  as 
peonage."  A  further  statue  of  1874  declared  it  a  crime 
"  to  kidnap  or  carry  away  any  other  person  with  intent 

278 


PEONAGE 

to  hold  him  in  involuntary  servitude."  The  word  "  peon- 
age "  comes  from  the  Mexican  system  of  serfdom,  the  prin- 
ciple of  which  is,  that  if  an  employee  owes  his  master  he 
must  continue  to  serve  him  until  that  debt  is  paid,  the 
only  escape  being  that  if  another  employer  is  willing  to 
come  forward  and  assume  the  debt  the  employee  is  allowed 
to  transfer  his  obligation  to  the  new  master.  In  practice, 
the  system  amounts  to  vassalage,  inasmuch  as  the  debt  is 
usually  allowed  to  reach  a  figure  which  there  is  no  hope 
of  paying  off. 

The  term  "  involuntary  servitude  "  is  clear  enough,  and 
it  is  a  curious  fact  that  when  the  Philippine  Islands  were 
annexed  there  was  a  system  of  slavery  in  the  Sulu  Archi- 
pelago which  was  actually  recognized  by  a  treaty  made  by 
General  Bates;  but  the  federal  government  dropped  the 
treaty,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  United  States 
courts  would  uphold  any  Sulu  bondman  who  sought  his 
liberty  under  the  Thirteenth  Amendment. 

In  1865  some  of  the  Southern  states  passed  vagrant 
laws  under  which  Negroes  were  obliged  to  make  a  labor 
contract  for  a  year,  and  could  be  compelled  to  carry  out 
that  contract;  and  the  belief  in  the  North  that  these 
statutes  were  virtually  intended  to  reenslave  the  freedmen 
was  one  of  the  mainsprings  of  the  Fourteenth  Amendment 
and  the  other  Reconstruction  legislation. 

Inasmuch  as  the  raising  of  cotton  requires  almost  con- 
tinuous labor,  it  is  customary  to  make  voluntary  contracts 
with  both  renters  and  wage  hands  running  for  a  year,  com- 
monly from  the  first  of  January;  and  breach  of  contract 
is  a  special  grief  and  loss  to  the  planter,  inasmuch  as  if  a 
Negro  throws  up  a  crop  it  is  often  impossible  to  find  any- 
body else  to  finish  it.  Hence  has  grown  up  almost  uncon- 
sciously a  practice  which  closely  resembles  the  Mexican 

279 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

peonage.  It  is  unwritten  law  among  some  planters  that 
nobody  must  give  employment  for  the  remainder  of  the 
year  to  a  hand  who  is  known  to  have  left  his  crop  on  an- 
other plantation ;  and  still  further,  that  no  contract  should 
be  made  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  with  a  family  which, 
.  after  accounting  for  the  previous  crop,  is  still  in  debt  to  a 
neighbor,  except  that  the  new  employer  may  pay  the  old 
debt  and  charge  it  as  an  advance  against  the  hand.  There 
is  nowhere  any  legal  sanction  of  this  widespread  practice, 
but  the  result  is  that  thousands  of  Negroes  are  practically 
fastened  to  their  plantation  because  nobody  else  in  the 
neighborhood  will  give  them  employment ;  and  far  too  many 
planters  therefore  make  it  a  point  to  keep  their  hands  in 
debt. 

This  system  grew  up  slowly  and  attracted  little  atten- 
tion till  it  began  to  be  applied  to  Whites.  During  the  last 
ten  years  the  South  has  been  opening  up  sawmills  and 
lumber  camps,  often  far  back  in  the  wilderness.  In  order 
to  get  men  either  from,  the  South  or  the  North,  it  was  nec- 
essary to  prepay  their  fare,  which  was  subsequently  taken 
out  of  their  wages.  Hence  the  proprietors  of  those  camps 
felt  that  they  had  a  claim  on  the  men's  service,  and  in  some 
cases  kept  them  shut  up  in  stockades.  For  instance,  in 
1906,  a  Hungarian  named  Trudics  went  down  to  Lock- 
hart,  Texas,  receiving  $18.00  for  railroad  fare,  on  an 
agreement  to  work  for  $1.50  a  day.  He  did  not  like  the 
work  and  thought  he  had  been  deceived  as  to  the  terms; 
whereupon  he  used  a  freedman's  privilege  of  bolting.  He 
was  trailed  with  bloodhounds  by  one  Gallagher,  caught, 
brutally  whipped  by  the  boss,  and  driven  back,  as  he  said, 
"  like  a  steer  at  the  point  of  a  revolver." 

Similar  cases  have  been  reported  from  various  parts  of 
the  South,  involving  both  native  Americans  and  foreigners ; 

280 


PEONAGE 

the  latter  have  sometimes  had  the  special  advantage  of  aid 
from  the  diplomatic  representatives  of  their  country.  Inas- 
much as  some  of  the  state  courts  were  unwilling  to  take 
action,  cases  were  brought  before  the  federal  courts  under 
the  Peonage  Act  of  1867.  Thus,  though  the  personal  abuse 
of  Trudics  by  Gallagher  was  a  state  offense  which  seems 
to  have  escaped  punishment,  the  violent  laying  of  hands 
on  him  and  restraint  of  his  liberty  was  made  a  case  before 
a  federal  court;  and  Gallagher  was  sent  to  prison  for 
three  months.  It  is  plain  that  if  foreigners  and  white 
Northerners  can  be  practically  enslaved,  the  same  thing 
may  happen  to  white  Southerners ;  this  and  other  like  con- 
victions have  had  a  good  effect.  Quite  beyond  the  injus- 
tice of  the  practice,  it  has  been  a  damage  to  the  South  be- 
cause it  checks  a  possible  current  of  immigration. 

In  1908  an  attempt  was  made  to  show  a  case  of  peon- 
age of  Italians  on  the  Sunny  Side  plantation,  Arkansas. 
It  proved  that  one  of  the  hands  had  grown  dissatisfied  and 
started  to  Greenville  to  take  a  train  for  the  wide  world, 
leaving  unpaid  a  debt  of  about  a  hundred  dollars  at  the 
commissary.  One  of  his  employers  followed  him  to  the 
station  and  told  him  that  if  he  attempted  to  leave  he  would 
arrest  him  for  breach  of  contract ;  whereupon  the  man  re- 
turned to  the  plantation.  This  was  certainly  not  peonage, 
and  the  grand  jury  consequently  refused  to  indict;  but  it 
was  an  attempt  to  enforce  specific  performance  of  a  labor 
contract.  Peonage  of  Whites  seems  to  have  about  come 
to  an  end;  it  was  not  stopped,  however,  by  public  opinion 
in  the  South,  and  it  still  goes  on  through  the  holding  in 
bondage  of  hundreds,  perhaps  thousands,  of  Negroes,  either 
in  unabashed  defiance  of  law  or  through  the  means  of 
cruelly  harsh  and  unjust  laws,  aided  by  bad  judges. 

In  the  first  place,  many  planters  assume  that  a  Negro 
281 


THE   SOUTHERN   SOUTH 

who  is  on  the  debit  side  on  their  books  has  no  right  to 
leave  the  plantation,  even  for  a  few  days,  and  as  one  of 
them  expressed  it  to  me :  "  If  he  goes  away,  I  just  go 
and  get  him."  A  case  recently  occurred  in  Monroe,  La., 
where  some  colored  men  were  brought  from  Texas  by  one 
Cole  on  the  assurance  that  they  were  to  be  employed  in 
Arkansas.  Instead  they  were  switched  off  and  set  to  work 
in  Louisiana.  One  of  them  departed  and  made  his  way  to 
Texas,  but  his  master  followed  him,  seized  him,  brought 
him  back  in  defiance  of  all  law,  and  set  him  at  work  again. 
The  master  was  tried  for  peonage  in  Texas,  but  was  not 
convicted. 

One  of  the  worst  criminal  cases  of  this  kind  is  that 
of  John  W.  Pace,  of  Dade  City,  Ala.,  who  not  only  shut 
in  his  own  people,  but  would  seize  any  black  that  chanced 
along  that  way  and  compel  him  to  work  for  him  a  few 
days.  Judge  Thomas  G.  Jones,  who  in  1901  was  put  on 
the  federal  bench  in  that  state,  made  it  his  business  to  fol- 
low up  Pace;  when  a  jury  declined  to  convict  him,  the 
judge  rated  them  soundly;  another  case  was  made  out 
and  Pace  thought  it  prudent  to  plead  guilty,  and  was  sen- 
tenced to  fifty-five  years  in  the  penitentiary.  The  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  affirmed  the  constitutionality  of 
the  peonage  law  and  Pace  threw  up  his  hands ;  then,  on  the 
request  of  the  judge,  the  President  pardoned  him.  These 
and  some  like  convictions  have  shaken  the  system  of  con- 
fining men  because  the  employer  thinks  that  otherwise  they 
will  go  away. 

Nevertheless,  under  cover  of  iniquitous  state  laws,  peon- 
age of  Negroes  goes  on  steadily,  first  by  a  most  unjust  en- 
forcement of  various  special  state  statutes  which  require 
agricultural  labor  contracts  to  be  made  in  writing,  and  to 
run  for  a  year.  The  illiterate  Negro  often  does  not  know 

282 


PEONAGE 

what  he  is  signing,  and  if  he  did  know  might  see  no  means 
of  helping  himself.  It  is  difficult  to  contrive  a  legal  pen- 
alty for  a  Negro  who  simply  leaves  his  contract  and  goes 
off;  he  might  be  arrested  and  held  for  debt,  since  almost 
all  such  hands  owe  their  employer  for  supplies  or  money ; 
but  all  the  Southern  states  have  constitutional  provisions 
against  imprisonment  for  debt.  The  difficulty  is  ingeni- 
ously avoided  by  most  of  the  states  in  the  Lower  South, 
which  make  it  a  punishable  offense  to  draw  advances  on 
"  false  pretenses  " ;  thereby  a  hand  who  attempts  to  leave 
while  in  debt  to  his  master  can  be  arrested  as  a  petty  crim- 
inal. But  how  is  it  provable  that  the  Negro  might  not 
intend  to  return  and  carry  out  his  contract  ?  In  Alabama 
the  legislature,  with  intent  to  avoid  the  federal  peonage 
law,  has  provided  that  the  acceptance  of  an  advance  and 
the  subsequent  nonperformance  of  the  contract  shall  be 
proof  presumptive  of  fraudulent  intent  at  the  time  of  mak- 
ing the  contract.  Now  the  employer  can  follow  his  ab- 
sconding hand  by  a  process  thus  described  by  a  planter. 
You  arrest  him  on  the  criminal  charge  of  false  pretenses, 
which  is  equivalent  to  a  charge  of  stealing  the  money ;  you 
get  him  convicted ;  he  is  fined,  and  in  lieu  of  money  to  pay 
the  fine  he  goes  to  jail;  then  you  pay  the  fine  and  costs 
and  the  judge  assigns  him  to  you  to  work  out  the  fine,  and 
you  have  him  back  on  your  plantation,  backed  up  by  the 
authority  of  the  state. 

Let  a  few  actual  illustrations,  all  based  on  Southern 
testimony,  show  what  is  done  under  such  a  system.  A 
woman  borrows  six  dollars  of  a  neighboring  planter,  who 
afterwards  makes  a  demand  for  the  money.  As  it  is  not 
paid,  he  sets  up  without  further  ceremony  the  pretense 
that  she  is  obliged  to  work  for  him,  refuses  to  receive  back 
the  money  which  her  present  employer  furnishes  her,  and 
19  283 


THE    SOUTHERN   SOUTH 

attempts  to  compel  her  to  labor.  In  South  Carolina  a 
man  starts  to  leave  his  employer,  asserting  that  he  has  paid 
up  his  debt;  the  employer  denies  it;  the  man  is  brought 
into  court  and  fined  thirty  dollars,  and  in  lieu  of  the  money 
goes  back  to  the  same  servitude,  this  time  hopeless.  A  Negro 
in  Alabama  makes  a  contract  January  1st  and  takes  $5.00 
earnest  money,  and  works  until  May;  the  master  refuses 
to  give  him  a  house.  He  works  two  months  more,  and  then 
leaves,  is  arrested  for  breach  of  contract,  and  the  courts 
hold  that  the  acceptance  of  that  five  dollars  proves  that  he 
did  not  mean  to  carry  out  his  contract,  although  he  has 
worked  seven  months.  A  woman  makes  a  labor  contract; 
and  before  it  expires  marries  a  man  whom  she  had  never 
met  at  the  time  of  making  her  contract;  held,  that  her 
marriage  proves  that  she  did  not  mean  to  carry  out  the 
contract  when  she  made  it,  and  she  is  therefore  guilty  of 
false  pretenses. 

Even  without  a  contract  a  Negro  may  be  legally  obliged 
to  labor  for  a  white  man  under  vagrancy  laws,  by  which 
Negroes  who  are  not  visibly  supporting  themselves  may  be 
convicted  for  that  crime,  and  then  sent  to  the  County 
Farm,  or  hired  out  to  somebody  who  will  pay  their  fine. 
Once  in  the  hands  of  a  master,  they  are  helpless.  For  in- 
stance, one  Glenny  Helms,  who  was  apparently  guilty  of 
no  offense,  was  in  1907  arrested,  fined  and  sold  to  one 
Turner,  who  in  this  case  thought  it  prudent  to  plead  guilty 
of  peonage.  The  son  of  this  Turner  was  the  agent  in  the 
most  frightful  case  of  peonage  as  yet  recorded.  A  woman 
was  accused  of  a  misdemeanor;  it  is  doubtful  whether  she 
had  committed  any;  but  at  any  rate  she  was  fined  fifteen 
dollars ;  Turner  paid  the  fine ;  she  was  assigned  to  him  and 
he  set  her  to  the  severe  labor  of  clearing  land.  And  then 
what  happened  ?  What  was  a  hustling  master  to  do  with 

284 


PEONAGE 

a  woman  who  would  not  pile  brush  as  fast  as  the  men 
brought  it,  but  to  whip  her,  and  if  she  still  did  not  reform, 
to  whip  her  again,  and  when  she  still  would  not  do  the 
work,  to  string  her  up  by  the  wrists  for  two  hours,  and 
when  she  still  "  shirked,"  God  Almighty  at  last  came  to  the 
rescue ;  she  was  dead !  When  they  tried  to  prosecute  the 
man  for  murder  in  the  state  courts,  the  sheriff  of  the 
county  (who  was  in -the  gang)  came  to  the  other  slaves  who 
had  seen  this,  as  they  were  summoned  to  the  grand  jury, 
and  told  them  that  if  they  gave  any  damaging  testimony 
"  we  will  put  you  in  the  river."  Such  things  happen  oc- 
casionally in  all  civilized  lands.  As  dreadful  a  crime  was 
committed  in  Paterson,  New  Jersey,  not  many  years  ago; 
but  there  are  two  differences  between  the  Bosschieter  and 
the  Turner  cases.  Those  Jersey  murderers  were  all  con- 
victed; that  man  Turner  walks  the  earth,  unmolested,  not 
even  lynched.  The  public  sentiment  of  New  Jersey  was 
clear  that  an  offense  against  the  humblest  foreigner  was 
an  offense  against  the  Commonwealth;  but  the  blood  of 
that  poor  black  woman  cries  in  vain  to  the  courts  of  Ala- 
bama; and  the  thousands  of  people  down  there  who  feel 
furious  about  such  matters  are  so  far  helpless. 

The  states  by  their  statutes  of  false  pretenses  are  part- 
ners in  those  iniquities,  but  the  federal  government  has 
done  its  best  in  prosecutions.  Between  fifty  and  a  hundred 
indictments  have  been  brought.  Federal"  Judge  Boyd,  of 
North  Carolina,  said  of  his  district :  "  There  has  been  evi- 
dence here  of  cruelty  so  excessive  as  to  put  to  shame  the 
veriest  barbarian  that  ever  lived."  Federal  Judge  Bra\v- 
ley,  of  South  Carolina,  has  held  void  an  act  of  that  State 
making  breach  of  labor  contract  a  misdemeanor.  Convic- 
tions have  been  obtained  in  half  a  dozen  states,  and  it  is 
altogether  likely  that  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 

285 


THE    SOUTHERX   SOUTH 

States  will  confirm  this  good  work  by  holding  invalid  all 
state  statutes  which  attempt  to  enforce  a  debt  by  sending 
a  man  to  prison,  or  still  more  by  selling  his  services  to  a 
master. 

Here,  as  in  so  many  other  phases  of  this  question,  the 
troublous  thing  is  not  that  there  should  be  cruelty  and 
oppression  or  servitude.  Gangs  of  Italians  under  a  pa- 
drone in  the  Xorth  are  sometimes  little  better  than  bond- 
men. Masters  of  almshouses  and  reform  schools  will 
sometimes  be  brutal  unless  their  institutions  are  frequently 
and  carefully  inspected.  The  real  difficulty  is  that  the 
superior  race  permits  its  laws  and  courts  to  be  used  for 
the  benefit  of  cruel  and  oppressive  men ;  that  public  senti- 
ment did  not  prevent  the  peonage  trials  by  making  the  cases 
impossible;  that  a  federal  judge  in  Alabama  should  be 
assailed  by  members  of  the  bar  and  members  of  Congress 
because  he  stopped  these  practices.  Peonage  is  an  offense 
which  cannot  be  committed  by  Negroes ;  it  requires  the  cap- 
ital, the  prestige,  and  the  commercial  influence  of  white 
men. 

The  federal  government  has  instituted  investigations 
of  these  practices,  and  Assistant  Attorney  General  Russell 
has  urged  the  passing  of  such  federal  statutes  as  shall  dis- 
tinctly reach  these  cases  of  detention;  and  also  the  amend- 
ment of  the  state  laws  so  as  to  take  away  the  authority 
to  transfer  the  services  of  anyone  from  the  state  to  an 
individual.  This  last  is  a  reform  of  which  there  is  espe- 
cial need.  Most  of  the  cases  of  peonage  arise  out  of  the 
practice  of  selling  the  specific  services  of  a  convict  to  an 
individual;  and  it  carries  with  it  practically  the  right  to 
compel  such  a  person  to  work  by  physical  force.  What  is 
to  be  done  with  a  bondman  who  refuses  to  touch  a  hoe, 
except  to  whip  him,  and  to  keep  on  whipping  him  till  he 

286 


PEONAGE 

3'ields?  The  guards  and  wardens  of  prisons  in  the  South 
use  the  lash  freely,  but  they  are  subject  at  least  to  nominal 
inspection  and  control.  To  transfer  the  distasteful  privi- 
lege to  a  contractor  or  farmer  is  to  restore  the  worst  inci- 
dents of  slavery. 

Sympathy  must  be  felt  for  the  planters  and  employers 
who  make  their  plans,  offer  good  wages,  give  regular  em- 
ployment, and  see  their  profits  reduced  or  eliminated  be- 
cause they  cannot  get  steady  labor.  Much  of  the  peonage 
is  simply  a  desperate  attempt  to  make  men  earn  their 
living.  The  trouble  is  that  nobody  is  wise  enough  to  in- 
vent a  method  of  compelling  specific  performance  of  a 
labor  contract  which  shall  not  carry  with  it  the  principle  of 
bondage.  Men  enlisted  in  the  army  and  navy  may  be 
tracked,  arrested,  and  punished  if  they  break  their  contracts 
— but  they  cannot  be  lashed  into  shouldering  a  gun  or 
cooking  a  meal.  Sailors  are,  by  the  peculiar  conditions  of 
isolation  at  sea,  subject  to  being  put  in  irons  for  refusing 
to  obey  an  order — but  the  cat  has  disappeared  from  the 
legal  arguments  to  do  their  duty.  It  is  the  concomitant  of 
freedom  that  the  private  laborer  shall  not  be  compelled  to 
work  by  force;  there  is  no  way  by  which  the  South  can 
cancel  that  triumph  of  civilization,  the  exercise  of  free 
will.  When  will  people  learn  the  good  old  Puritan  lesson 
that  the  power  to  do  well  involves  the  power  to  refuse  well 
doing?  That  you  cannot  offer  the  incitement  of  free 
labor  without  including  the  possibility  of  the  laborer  pre- 
ferring to  be  idle? 


CHAPTER   XXI 

WHITE   EDUCATION 

THE  most  progressive  nations  have  now  definitely 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  there  is  no  mode  of  in- 
creasing industrial  and  commercial  efficiency  so 
effective  as  universal  education  sufficiently  prolonged  to  ef- 
fect permanent  improvement  in  the  observing  and  reason- 
ing powers  of  the  children."  So  said  that  primate  of  Amer- 
ican education,  President  Eliot,  in  an  address  at  Tuskegee, 
Ala.  Though  speaking  before  an  audience  chiefly  composed 
of  colored  people,  he  was  laying  down  a  general  principle, 
for  he  goes  on  to  say  that  in  the  Southern  states  "  for  both 
whites  and  blacks  the  school  time  is  too  short;  a  large 
proportion  of  the  children  leave  school  at  too  early  an  age ; 
well-trained  teachers  are  lacking;  and  the  range  and  vari- 
ety of  accessible  instruction  are  too  small.  Hence  a  large 
proportion  of  both  the  white  race  and  the  black  race  in  the 
South  are  in  urgent  need  of  better  facilities  for  education." 
This  is  one  point  of  view ;  at  the  other  extremity  stand 
such  men  as  a  Southern  editor  who  has  recently  written, 
"  As  an  educational  influence  the  investment  of  $100,000 
in  a  cotton  mill  is  worth  ten  times  the  $100,000  given  a 
Southern  college."  What  does  the  South  as  a  whole  think 
on  this  question  of  education  ?  What  are  its  needs  ?  What 
has  it  so  far  done  ?  What  is  it  prepared  to  do  ?  How  does 
education  affect  the  race  question? 

288 


WHITE    EDUCATION 

Throughout  the  South  there  has  been  and  still  persists 
an  excellent  tradition  of  reading  and  of  education  among 
the  classes  which  may  be  presumed  to  afford  such  advan- 
tages for  their  children.  Classical  allusions  and  quotations 
from  Scripture  and  Shakespeare  are  still  recognized  by  all 
well-educated  men.  Some  of  the  few  fine  old  plantation 
houses  contain  elegantly  appointed  libraries,  stopping 
short,  however,  at  the  year  1836,  or  whenever  the  owner 
died.  The  city  of  Charleston  has  better  bookstores  than 
the  city  of  Albany.  Probably  more  people  in  North  Caro- 
lina can  comment  on  Shakespeare  than  in  Maine ;  and  the 
man  who  can  read  Horace  without  a  pony  and  quote  Greek 
without  looking  at  the  book  is  a  public  character.  Besides 
this  admiration  for  an  old-fashioned  learning  that  is  now 
passing,  the  South  feels  a  genuine  and  lively  interest  in 
what  goes  on  in  the  world.  The  present  generation  of 
fairly  well-to-do  people  travel  more,  see  more,  read  more 
that  is  written  in  their  own  time,  think  more  than  did 
their  fathers  and  grandfathers.  They  feel  a  genuine  in- 
terest in  education,  put  intelligent  thought  on  methods, 
show  respect  for  the  colleges,  are  willing  to  spend  money 
on  schools. 

Like  England  in  the  Eighteenth  Century  the  South 
abounded  in  readers  of  good  literature,  while  the  land  was 
full  of  ignorance.  Though  in  early  Virginia  suggestions 
were  made  for  free  common  schools,  and  Thomas  Jefferson 
strenuously  advocated  them,  though  in  the  forties  and  fif- 
ties several  Southern  states  had  elaborate  paper  systems 
of  schools,  outside  the  large  cities  there  were  no  graded 
schools  open  to  all  white  children  such  as  were  famil- 
iar in  the  North  after  1840.  Even  New  Orleans  waited 
for  good  school  buildings  till  the  fortunate  bequest  of 
McDonogh ;  as  for  free  rural  school?,  not  a  single  Southern 

289 


THE    SOUTHEKN    SOUTH 

state  had  organized  and  set  in  operation  a  system  before 
the  Civil  War.  From  the  first  the  sparse  settlement  of 
the  South,  the  presence  of  the  Negro,  and  the  lack  of  that 
commercial  connection  with  the  rest  of  the  world  which 
so  arouses  the  human  mind,  made  it  difficult  and  perhaps 
impossible  to  found  a  system  of  general  popular  education 
in  that  region. 

For  the  higher  education  of  the  dominant  class  much 
more  was  done.  Beginning  with  William  and  Mary  in 
1692 — the  first  colonial  college  except  Harvard — many 
colleges  were  established.  The  first  state  university  was 
North  Carolina,  founded  in  1790;  the  first  American 
university  of  the  German  type  was  the  University  of  Vir- 
ginia, which  began  operations  in  1825 ;  the  first  institution 
to  introduce  coeducation  was  Blount  College,  which, 
about  1800,  conferred  the  degree  of  A.B.  upon  a  woman. 
But  for  various  reasons  there  never  were  money  enough, 
students  enough,  and  trained  educators  enough  to  man 
the  Southern  colleges  that  were  founded;  and  secondary 
schools  to  feed  the  colleges  were  lacking.  The  girls  had 
a  few  boarding  schools,  some  of  which  were  called  colleges 
by  courtesy,  but  their  education  was  superficial.  Many 
students  who  could  afford  it  found  their  way  to  Northern 
colleges,  and  that  is  why  John  C.  Calhoun,  the  apostle  of 
slavery,  was  a  Yale  graduate,  and  Barnwell  Ehett,  the  pro- 
tagonist of  secession,  was  a  graduate  of  Harvard. 

After  the  Civil  War  came  a  dismal  period,  when  some 
of  the  old  universities  were  closed  for  want  of  means  and 
of  professors  who  could  take  the  oath  of  allegiance.  The 
training  of  the  children  of  the  best  families  at  that  period 
has  been  thus  described  by  one  who  experienced  it :  "  The 
schools  that  I  attended — may  God  forgive  the  young 
women  who  one  after  another  taught  the  children  of  the 

290 


WHITE    EDUCATION 

sparsely  settled  neighborhood — were  farces  and  frauds. 
There  was  no  public  school.  .  .  .  We  lived  in  sort  of  a  se- 
cluded training  place  for  Southern  gentlemen.  .  .  .  We 
never  saw  a  newspaper.  .  .  .  The  professor  of  mathematics 
— so  a  rumor  ran — was  a  freethinker.  He  was  said  to  have 
read  Darwin  and  become  an  evolutionist.  But  the  report 
was  not  generally  believed;  for,  it  was  argued,  even  if 
he  had  read  Darwin,  a  man  of  his  great  intellect 
would  instantly  see  the  fallacy  of  that  doctrine  and  dis- 
card it." 

One  of  the  few  benefits  conferred  by  the  Keconstruc- 
tion  governments  was  a  system  of  general  public  schools 
nominally  open  to  every  child  in  city  or  country ;  but  just  as 
the  education  of  Negroes  and  Poor  Whites  was  beginning, 
the  schools  were  separated  for  the  two  races,  and  the  Ne- 
groes were  cut  off  from  Southern  white  teachers.  To  start 
the  new  system  there  was  no  tradition  of  public  school 
training  and  management,  little  sense  of  public  duty  in  lay- 
ing sufficient  taxes,  and  the  South  was  very  poor.  Hence  it 
was  about  1885  before  the  South  put  into  operation  a  gen- 
eral educational  system,  supported  by  public  taxation. 
The  most  recent  statistics  available  (for  1906)  show  over 
6,000,000  common  school  pupils  in  the  South,  besides 
380,000  pupils  in  private  schools,  118,000  pupils  in  public 
high  schools,  and  34,000  more  in  private  secondary  schools ; 
38,000  students  in  public  and  private  universities,  col- 
leges and  schools  of  technology.  Every  Southern  state  has 
now  worked  out  some  system  of  both  rural  and  urban  pub- 
lic schools,  and  several  of  them  have  a  sizable  State  school 
fund  which  is  distributed  among  the  districts.  The  or- 
dinary type  of  rural  school  is  practically  the  district  school 
of  the  North  over  again.  City  schools  are  graded  in  the 
usual  fashion.  Most  states  have  a  State  Superintendent 

291 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

of  Education,  and  the  more  progressive  communities  like 
Louisiana  are  introducing  county  superintendents  with 
power  to  compel  good  schools.  Surely  with  so  many  peo- 
ple and  so  much  money,  all  must  be  happy  in  the  South. 
It  is  an  educational  army,  with  common  school  infantry, 
secondary  school  cavalry,  and  in  the  institutions  of  higher 
learning  the  heavy  artillery  and  the  big  guns.  Yet  it  is 
an  army  in  which  every  division,  brigade,  and  regiment 
is  divided  into  two  camps,  in  which  spear  clashes  on  shield, 
for  hardly  anything  in  the  South  so  brings  out  into  relief 
the  race  question  as  the  problem  of  education,  and  espe- 
cially of  negro  education. 

The  Reconstruction  governments  made  no  provision 
for  public  high  schools,  but  the  growth  of  towns  and  cities 
in  the  South  and  the  need  of  preparatory  schools  for  the 
colleges,  and  the  public  sense  of  the  value  of  secondary 
education,  have  compelled  the  founding  of  a  great  number 
of  such  schools,  both  for  girls  and  boys.  Normal  schools 
have  also  developed  till  there  are  45  with  over  10,000  stu- 
dents. The  colleges  are  also  flourishing;  and  of  profes- 
sional schools  the  South  has  more  than  160,  with  above 
12,000  students. 

A  rough  measure  of  the  need  of  education  is  the  sta- 
tistics of  illiteracy,  which  in  the  reports  of  the  United 
States  Commissioner  of  Education  is  denned  as  the  status 
of  a  person  over  ten  years  of  age  who  is  able  neither  to  read 
nor  to  write.  Such  illiterates  in  Germany  are  about  one 
per  cent  of  the  population;  in  England  about  six  per 
cent ;  in  the  whole  of  the  United  States  about  ten  per  cent. 
The  various  states  of  the  Union  show  great  variations: 
in  Nebraska  in  1900  it  was  two  per  cent;  and  the  lowest 
Southern  state,  Missouri,  with  six  per  cent,  showed  a 
greater  proportion  of  illiterates  than  any  of  27  Northern 

292 


WHITE   EDUCATION 

states;  while  the  12  highest  communities  on  the  list,  from 
Arkansas  with  twenty  per  cent  to  Louisiana  with  thirty- 
eight  per  cent,  are  all  Southern  but  two.  Of  58,000,000 
persons  sufficiently  old  to  be  capable  of  both  reading  and 
writing  in  some  language  in  the  United  States  in  1900, 
6,000,000  were  illiterate,  of  whom  about  4,000,000  lived  in 
the  South;  of  the  21  most  illiterate  states  and  territories, 
15  are  Southern,  the  worst  being  Alabama,  South  Carolina, 
and  Louisiana,  in  all  of  which  more  than  a  third  of  the 
population  was  illiterate.  This  alarming  state  of  things  is 
not  due  wholly  to  the  negro  race;  out  of  5,700,000  blacks 
at  least  ten  years  of  age,  2,700,000,  or  forty-eight  per  cent, 
were  illiterate;  out  of  13,000,000  Whites,  1,400,000,  or 
eleven  per  cent,  were  illiterates.  The  white  illiterates,  with 
all  the  advantages  of  their  superior  race,  were  half  as 
numerous  as  the  Negroes!  Out  of  1,900,000  white  chil- 
dren of  school  age,  200,000,  or  ten  and  a  half  per  cent, 
could  not  read  or  write;  out  of  1,000,000  colored  children 
of  the  same  age,  300,000  were  illiterate,  which  is  twenty- 
five  per  cent. 

For  botli  races  this  proportion  of  illiterates  is  steadily 
diminishing;  and  that  is  the  effect  of  the  schools  and  of 
nothing  else.  Never  again  will  the  South  see  a  generation 
like  the  present,  in  which  many  adults  have  had  no  oppor- 
tunity, or  have  neglected  the  opportunity  of  going  to  school 
when  children.  These  figures  accord  with  the  experience 
of  other  states;  for  instance,  New  Hampshire  in  1890  was 
as  illiterate  as  Missouri  was  in  1900;  and  in  both  states 
illiteracy  is  steadily  decreasing.  As  for  the  Southern  Poor 
Whites,  it  is  true,  as  Murphy  says,  that  they  have  a  po- 
tentiality of  education.  "  I  find  no  hopelessness  in  it,  be- 
cause it  is  the  illiteracy,  not  of  the  degenerate,  but  simply 
of  the  unstarted.  Our  unlettered  white  people  are  native 

293 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

American  in  stock,  virile  in  faculty  and  capacity,  free  iw 
spirit,  unbroken,  uncorrupted,  fitted  to  learn." 

The  gross  figures  of  illiteracy  are  misleading,  because 
the  old  people  who  cannot  now  be  taught  to  read  and  write 
reduce  the  general  average  against  the  children  who  are 
learning  the  arts  of  intelligence.  The  percentage  of  col- 
ored illiterates  in  the  whole  of  the  United  States  in  1900 
was  forty-four  per  cent  as  against  seventy  per  cent  in 
1880;  in  Louisiana  the  percentage  runs  up  to  sixty-one 
per  cent;  but  the  Negroes  between  ten  years  old  and 
twenty-five  show  only  about  thirty  per  cent  of  illiteracy, 
and  that  proportion  is  steadily  decreasing.  In  1900  the 
illiterate  children  from  ten  to  fourteen  years  of  age  were 
in  Mississippi  only  twenty-two  per  cent.  With  reasonably 
good  schools  and  proper  laws  for  compulsory  attendance 
illiteracy  may  be  expected  to  sink  to  about  the  figures  of 
other  civilized  nations. 

This  raises  at  once  the  question  of  the  actual  efficiency 
of  the  schools  in  the  South,  their  comparison  with  other 
parts  of  the  country,  their  probable  effect  upon  the  future 
of  the  region.  The  ability  to  write  one's  name  and  to  read 
a  few  words  is  only  the  beginning  of  education;  the  real 
educational  question  in  the  South  is,  What  are  the  schools 
doing  beyond  the  rudiments  of  the  three  E's  ?  Some  light 
is  thrown  on  that  question  by  comparing  the  school  sta- 
tistics of  the  Lower  South  with  those  of  a  block  of  similar 
Western  and  Northwestern  agricultural  communities  from 
Indiana  to  Utah:  20,700,000  Southerners  have  7,000,000 
children  of  school  age  (five  years  to  eighteen),  of  whom 
4,400,000  are  enrolled  and  the  average  daily  attendance  is 
2,700,000;  20,700,000  Northerners  with  6,000,000  chil- 
dren (a  million  less  than  the  equivalent  South)  enroll 
4,500,000  and  have  a  daily  attendance  of  3,200,000.  The 

294 


WHITE    EDUCATION 

Southern  group  has  92,000  teachers;  the  Northern,  158,- 
000.  The  value  of  Southern  school  property  is  $42,000,- 
000;  of  Northern,  $217,000,000,  or  over  four  times  as 
much.  The  Southern  school  revenue  is  $26,000,000;  the 
Northern,  $92,000,000.  The  average  expenditure  per  pu- 
pil attending  in  the  South  is  under  $10.00;  in  the  North 
nearly  $30.00.  The  South  spent  about  16  cents  on  each 
hundred  dollars  of  valuation;  the  North  spent  about  20 
cents. 

When  the  whole  South  together,  including  such  rich 
states  as  Maryland  and  Missouri,  is  compared  with  an 
equivalent  population  group  in  the  North,  the  figures  are 
more  favorable  to  that  section:  28,000,000  Southerners 
furnished  an  average  daily  attendance  of  3,700,000  chil- 
dren; the  same  number  in  the  North  furnished  4,200,000. 
The  South  has  127,000  teachers;  the  North,  200,000.  The 
total  value  of  Southern  school  property  is  $84,000,000; 
of  Northern,  $294,000,000.  A  comparison  of  per-capita  ex- 
penditure in  the  year  1900  showed  an  average  school  tax  in 
the  United  States  of  $2.84  per  head;  but  not  a  single  state 
south  of  Washington  raised  above  $2.10.  Alabama  raised 
only  50  cents,  and  even  the  rich  state  of  Texas  only  about 
$1.50,  as  against  $4.80  in  North  Dakota.  Tennessee  spent 
$1,800,000  a  year  in  public  education;  Wisconsin,  with 
an  equivalent  population,  spent  $5,500,000;  South  Caro- 
lina, with  a  population  nine  tenths  that  of  California,  spent 
one  eighth  as  much.  The  state  of  Mississippi  spent  $6.17 
per  pupil  annually;  the  state  of  Vermont  spent  $22.85. 

Inasmuch  as  the  Negroes  contribute  several  million 
school  children  and  not  very  much  in  taxes,  it  will  be  in- 
structive to  compare  the  12,000,000  Whites  of  the  Lower 
South  with  12,000,000  Northwestern  "Whites,  in  those 
forms  of  education  which  are  referable  chiefly  to  the 

295 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

Whites.  The  Lower  South,  on  this  basis,  furnished  in 
190G  68,600  pupils  in  public  secondary  schools  against 
172,600  in  the  equivalent  North;  the  secondary  school 
plants  in  the  South  cost  $23,000,000;  in  the  North  $52,- 
000,000.  The  college  students  in  the  South  were  27,800 ; 
in  the  North,  27,200.  The  Southern  college  income  was 
$6,000,000;  the  Northern,  $7,500,000.  Here,  again,  the 
comparison  of  the  whole  South  with  18  million  Whites 
against  18  equivalent  millions  in  the  Northwest  is  some- 
what more  favorable.  The  secondary  plant  costs  $40,000,- 
000  against  $77,000,000  in  the  North.  The  normal  schools 
of  the  South  have  an  income  of  $1,400,000,  those  of  the 
North  $2,400,000.  The  Southern  college  students  are  38,- 
000  against  42,000;  and  the  college  income,  $9,000,000 
against  $12,600,000. 

The  inevitable  inference  from  these  figures  is  that  the 
South  still  needs  to  bring  up  its  equipment  and  its  expendi- 
ture if  it  is  to  educate  as  efficiently  as  its  neighbors ;  and 
this  presumption  is  strengthened  by  observation  of  schools 
of  various  grades.  The  Southern  city  schools  are  good,  es- 
pecially in  the  former  border  states ;  St.  Louis,  Baltimore, 
and  Louisville  come  close  up  to  Cleveland,  Indianapolis,  and 
St.  Paul  in  the  outward  evidences  of  educational  progress. 
Statistical  comparison  of  a  group  of  Southern  cities  with 
a  group  of  Northern  cities  of  the  same  aggregate  popula- 
tion shows  that  in  externals  they  are  not  far  apart;  the 
Northern  schools  have  more  schoolrooms,  more  teachers 
and  more  plant,  but  the  annual  expenditures  are  about  as 
large  in  the  Southern  as  in  the  Northern  group. 

The  rural  white  schools  are  a  different  matter.  It  is,  to 
be  sure,  nearly  thirty  years  since  old  Bill  Williams  explained 
why  there  was  no  school  in  the  Clover  Bottom  district  in 
the  Kentucky  mountains :  "  They  couldn't  have  no  school 

296 


WHITE    EDUCATION 

because  there  wasn't  nary  door  or  winder  in  the  school - 
house.  I've  got  that  door  and  winder,  and  I  paid  a  dollar 
for  'em ;  but  I've  been  keeping  'em,  you  see,  because  there 
was  trouble  about  the  title.  Jim  Harris  gin  us  that  land, 
and  we  'lowed  'twas  all  right,  because  it  belonged  to  his 
gran'ther  and  he  was  the  favorite  grand.-on ;  but  when  the 
old  man  died  it  'peared  like  he  had  willed  it  to  somebody 
else;  and  I  wouldn't  put  no  door  nor  winder  into  no  school- 
house  where  there  ain't  no  title,  and  there  hain't  been  no 
school  there  sence.  You  want  to  know  when  all  that 
trouble  happened  'bout  the  title?  I  reckon  it  was  fifteen 
or  twenty  year  ago."  There  are  still  just  such  schools  or 
rather  such  no  schools  in  many  parts  of  the  South. 

Even  in  prosperous  regions,  buildings,  apparatus,  and 
teacher  may  be  alike,  dirty  and  repellent.  Take,  for  in- 
stance, Mt.  Moriah  school  in  Coosa  County,  Alabama. 
The  building  is  twenty-five  feet  square,  inclosing  a  single 
room  with  two  windows  and  two  doorways,  one  of  them 
blocked  up.  In  the  middle  is  an  iron  stove,  around  which 
on  a  winter's  day  are  parked  four  benches  in  a  hollow 
square,  upon  which,  or  studying  in  the  corner,  huddle  and 
wriggle  twenty-three  pupils,  ranging  from  seven  up  to 
twenty-one  years  of  age.  They  are  reading  physiology 
aloud,  in  the  midst  of  the  gaunt  room,  with  very  little  in 
the  way  of  blackboards  or  materials.  An  example  of  the 
better  district  schoolhouse  is  in  a  populous  region  near  the 
mill  town  of  Talassee ;  a  new  building  with  eleven  windows, 
well  ceiled  throughout,  with  a  clean  gravel  space  in  front, 
good  desks  and  plenty  of  blackboard. 

The  curse  of  many  of  the  rural  schools  is  their  easy 
money,  for  all  the  Southern  states  have  a  system  of  state 
school  funds,  the  income  of  which  is  subdivided  among  the 
districts,  and  is  in  some  of  them  about  enough  to  keep  up 

297 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

school  three  or  four  months  on  the  usual  scale  of  payment 
to  teachers.  When  the  school  fund  is  exhausted,  great 
numbers  of  districts  close  their  schoolhouses,  and  the  re- 
sult is  that  the  average  number  of  school  days  in  a  year  is 
far  below  that  of  Northern  schools.  In  Massachusetts, 
Connecticut,  and  Ehode  Island  the  public  schools  are  in 
session  about  190  days;  in  Georgia,  118;  in  Arkansas,  87. 
These  are  averages;  and  since  the  city  schools  commonly 
run  seven  or  eight  months,  there  must  be  many  districts  in 
which  there  are  not  over  fifty  or  sixty  days'  school.  One 
of  the  great  educational  reforms  now  going  on  in  the  South 
is  to  secure  from  the  local  governments  appropriations  to 
continue  the  schools  after  the  state  fund  runs  out.  "When 
the  South  is  sufficiently  aroused  to  the  blessing  of  educa- 
tion, it  will  find  that  it  has  money  enough  for  its  needs. 

Another  defect  is  in  the  schoolhouses.  The  Southern 
towns  and  cities  are  coming  to  follow  the  example  of  the 
West  and  North  in  putting  up  imposing  school  buildings, 
though  there  is  no  such  need  for  elaborate  heating  appa- 
ratus and  ventilation  as  in  the  North,  and  they  are  in 
general  simpler.  The  country  schoolhouse  is  in  many 
cases  a  big,  dirty  hut,  often  built  of  logs,  wretchedly  fur- 
nished, and  devoid  of  the  commonest  appliances  of  civiliza- 
tion. There  seems  to  be  a  feeling  throughout  the  South 
that  schoolhouses  cannot  be  built  wholly  out  of  taxation, 
but  the  people  on  the  ground  must  contribute  at  least  a 
part  of  the  cost.  You  may  find  neat  and  tidy  rural  school- 
houses,  actually  painted,  but  they  are  far  from  typical. 

Another  difficulty  is  the  teachers.  The  monthly  sal- 
aries for  white  teachers  in  several  of  the  Southern  states 
are  high.  A  Coosa  County  farmer  complains  that  a 
teacher  in  his  district  is  getting  $3.50  a  day  for  twenty 
days  in  the  month,  which  was  more  than  any  farmer  in 

298 


WHITE   EDUCATION 

the  district  could  earn.  But  of  course  her  $70.00  a  month 
would  only  run  while  school  was  in  session,  which  might 
be  five  months.  In  Louisiana  rural  teachers  receive 
higher  salaries  than  in  any  other  state  in  the  Union,  and 
no  commonwealth  is  making  such  determined  effort  to  im- 
prove its  rural  schools.  In  the  remoteness  of  Catahoola 
Parish  may  be  seen  a  system  of  wagonettes  to  bring  chil- 
dren to  central  graded  schools,  a  reform  which  goes  very 
slowly  in  New  England. 

A  further  reason  for  the  backwardness  of  the  Southern 
rural  schools  is  that  they  are  in  the  hands  of  county  super- 
intendents, whose  place  until  recently  has  too  often  been 
political.  Now  there  is  a  body  of  trained  superintendents 
who  are  giving  people  object  lessons  in  what  can  be  done 
even  with  poor  buildings  by  well-trained  teachers.  The 
South  is  also  bending  its  energies  on  normal  schools,  and 
the  result  is  a  growing  body  of  teachers  with  professional 
spirit,  who  expect  to  make  the  schools  their  life  work.  The 
state  superintendents  are  also  improving  in  their  profes- 
sional power.  The  worst  Southern  rural  schools  are  not 
too  much  behind  those  that  Horace  Mann  found  in  Massa- 
chusetts when  he  began  his  work  in  1837 ;  the  wages  of  the 
rural  teachers  are  probably  not  so  low  as  those  in  Maine; 
and  the  next  decade  will  see  a  vast  improvement  in  the 
rural  schools  throughout  the  South. 

So  with  the  secondary  schools,  where  the  number  of 
pupils  has  astonishingly  increased.  In  1898  there  were 
in  the  South  1,107  schools  and  72,000  pupils;  in  1906  there 
were  1,685  schools  (Texas  alone  has  321),  5,100  teachers, 
and  118,000  pupils.  A  great  change  has  come  about  in  the 
education  of  girls.  Nearly  half  the  teachers  and  nearly 
two  thirds  of  the  pupils  (70,000)  in  these  schools  are 
women,  and  that  means  that  in  connection  with  the  nor- 
20  099 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

mal  schools,  in  which  there  are  over  7,000  women  students, 
the  South  is  now  training  a  body  of  teachers  who  are  going 
to  make  a  great  change  in  the  education  of  the  next  gener- 
ation. The  growth  of  secondary  schools  means  further  that 
the  South  is  putting  an  end  to  a  reproach  of  many  years' 
standing — namely,  that  it  could  not  adequately  prepare 
pupils  for  college. 

It  was  a  severe  lesson  when  the  trustees  of  the  Carnegie 
retiring  allowance  fund  in  1906  laid  down  its  principle  that 
no  grant  would  be  made  to  professors  in  any  college  which 
did  not  come  up  to  the  following  standard :  "  An  institu- 
tion to  be  ranked  as  a  college  must  have  at  least  six  pro- 
fessors giving  their  entire  time  to  college  and  university 
work,  a  course  of  four  full  years  in  liberal  arts  and  sciences, 
and  should  require  for  admission  not  less  than  the  usual 
four  years  of  academic  or  high  school  preparation,  or  its 
equivalent,  in  addition  to  the  preacademic  or  grammar 
school  studies."  To  the  surprise  of  the  Lower  South,  it  was 
discovered  that  only  one  institution,  Tulane  University, 
had  insisted  on  the  condition  of  four  years  academic  or 
high  school  preparation.  Several  other  organizations  are 
waking  the  South  up  to  the  need  of  improvements,  such  as 
the  Association  of  Colleges  and  Preparatory  Schools  of  the 
Southern  states,  with  nineteen  colleges  as  members ;  a  com- 
mission of  the  Southern  Methodist  Church;  the  General 
Education  Board  of  New  York,  with  its  fund  of  $43,000,- 
000;  and  the  Southern  Education  Board. 

In  the  South  as  in  the  North,  there  are  two  types  of 
institutions  of  higher  learning,  the  endowed  (in  most 
cases  denominational)  and  the  public.  The  number  of 
Southern  colleges  is  considerable;  166  out  of  493  in  the 
United  States — which  is  not  far  from  the  proportion  of 
the  population;  but  only  8  of  these  institutions  have  up- 

300 


WHITE   EDUCATION 

ward  of  500  undergraduate  students,  as  against  42  in  the 
rest  of  the  Union ;  and  the  total  number  of  undergraduate 
students  in  universities,  colleges,  and  technological  schools, 
25,300,  is  about  a  fifth  of  the  total  of  122,000  in  the  United 
States,  while  the  normal  proportion  would  be  a  third.  The 
property  of  the  Southern  colleges  ($99,000,000)  is  about 
a  fifth  of  the  total  college  property;  the  income  of  $7,- 
300,000  is  about  a  sixth  of  the  whole,  the  benefactions  in 
1906  ($2,400,000)  about  a  seventh.  That  is,  in  number, 
wealth,  and  students,  Southern  institutions  of  higher  learn- 
ing represent  about  the  same  reduced  proportion  to  the 
North  as  in  the  case  of  public  wealth  and  public  expendi- 
tures ;  that  means  that  an  average  million  of  people  in  the 
South  enjoy  less  than  half  the  educational  advantages  pos- 
sessed by  an  average  million  in  the  Northwest. 

This  rather  favorable  proportion  does  not  obtain  in 
women's  education ;  of  the  fifteen  colleges  for  women,  recog- 
nized by  the  Bureau  of  Education  as  of  full  collegiate  rank, 
only  4  are  in  the  South ;  they  include  less  than  an  eighth 
of  the  women  students,  and  their  property  is  less  than  a 
tenth.  The  95  Southern  institutions  classified  as  "  Col- 
leges for  women,  Division  B "  are  practically  boarding 
schools  of  secondary  grade,  and  are  balanced  by  the  greater 
number  of  Northern  girls  in  high  schools ;  345,000  against 
70,000  Southern  high  school  girls;  the  17,000  in  private 
high  schools  and  academies  are  overbalanced  by  35,000  in 
the  North.  One  of  the  great  needs  of  the  South  at  pres- 
ent is  high-class  colleges  for  girls,  which  shall  turn  out  a 
well-grounded  and  well-trained  body  of  women,  interested 
in  public  affairs,  and  shall  be  a  nursery  of  high  school  and 
college  teachers. 

The  Southern  denominational  colleges  are  open  prac- 
tically to  men  only.  The  normal  schools  receive  botli 

301 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

sexes,  and  4,000  women  are  registered  in  the  Southern  uni- 
versities, colleges,  and  technological  schools  which  are  open 
to  both  sexes,  as  against  10,000  men.  As  the  Southern 
states  grow  richer,  they  are  giving  more  attention  and  more 
money  to  their  public  institutions,  but  so  far  few  of  their 
advanced  institutions  take  rank  alongside  the  great  North- 
western universities.  The  University  of  North  Carolina 
has  682  students  and  an  excellent  tradition ;  the  University 
of  Texas  counts  1,100  men  and  400  women,  and  is  in  many 
ways  the  most  flourishing  of  the  Southern  institutions. 
The  University  of  Virginia,  though  it  has  an  annual  grant 
from  the  legislature,  is  practically  an  endowed  institution 
with  700  students;  the  University  of  Georgia  has  408  stu- 
dents, though  it  at  one  time  put  forth  the  whimsical  claim 
that  it  had  the  largest  attendance  in  the  United  States, 
surpassing  Harvard  and  Columbia,  a  result  made  up  by 
adding  in  day  scholars  in  affiliated  schools  below  the  high 
school  grade.  The  state  university  funds,  including  the 
federal  grants,  are  usually  dispersed  among  two,  or  even 
three  or  four  small  institutions. 

There  is  a  vigorous  intellectual  movement  in  the  South. 
The  recent  graduates,  who  at  one  time  had  a  preference 
for  college  appointments  in  their  own  colleges,  are  now 
giving  way  to  a  throng  of  eager  young  scholars  who  have 
enjoyed  graduate  study  in  American  or  foreign  universities 
and  hold  higher  degrees.  Wherever  jou  fall  in  with  a  body 
of  those  men,  you  are  impressed  with  their  good  training 
and  their  broad  outlook.  Politics  are  yearly  less  forceful 
in  such  institutions;  and  probably  never  again  will  there 
be  such  an  episode  as  happened  in  a  border  state  uni- 
versity about  ten  years  ago.  A  new  president  discovered 
after  a  time  that  the  janitor  of  the  college  buildings  was 
not  disposed  to  take  instructions  from  him,  whereupon  he 

302 


WHITE    EDUCATION 

appealed  to  the  board  of  trustees  to  put  the  man  definite^ 
under  his  control.  The  trustees  held  their  meeting,  at  the 
end  of  which  the  janitor  appeared  with  a  bundle  of  blue 
envelopes,  the  first  of  which  he  offered  to  the  president 
with  the  confidential  remark,  "  You're  fired !  "  The  others 
were  addressed  to  the  professors,  every  one  of  whom  was 
summarily  removed.  Having  thus  gone  back  to  first  prin- 
ciples, the  trustees  elected  a  new  president  and  a  new  fac- 
ulty, including  some  of  the  old  teachers;  strange  to  say, 
that  university  has  since  become  one  of  the  most  promising 
in  its  section.  In  all  institutions  of  this  kind  and  in  the 
literary  faculties  of  many  colleges  is  a  sprinkling  of  North- 
ern professors,  for  the  Southern  colleges,  like  the  Northern, 
are  more  tolerant  than  they  were  half  a  century  ago.  Most 
of  the  young  men  now  receiving  appointments  in  colleges 
and  scientific  institutions  have  studied  in  other  Southern 
colleges,  in  the  North  or  in  Europe ;  and  in  all  the  learned 
associations  they  take  their  places  as  well-equipped  and 
productive  men. 

Professional  education  has  also  made  great  strides  in 
the  South.  Many  of  the  most  promising  young  men  are 
sent  to  Northern  law  and  medical  schools,  not  only  be- 
cause of  their  supposed  educational  advantages,  but  be- 
cause it  is  thought  well  for  a  young  man  to  have  a  double 
horizon ;  but  the  greater  number  find  instruction  in  nearby 
professional  schools  either  established  by  practitioners  or 
attached  to  some  university.  For  the  medical  students  the 
hospitals  which  are  springing  up  everywhere  furnish  clin- 
ical material.  Theological  education  is  less  systematized; 
the  older  and  more  settled  denominations  have  good  schools, 
but  too  many  preachers  in  the  back  country  have  no  other 
training  than  a  natural  "  gift  of  the  gab."  In  the  agri- 
cultural and  mechanical  colleges,  and  the  engineering  de- 

303 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

partments  of  the  endowed  public  universities,  the  South  is 
educating  her  future  engineers  and  scientific  men. 

The  educative  effects  of  travel  and  intercourse  with 
other  people  are  making  themselves  felt.  In  ante-bellum 
times  few  Southerners  traveled  widely,  except  the  com- 
paratively small  number  of  the  richer  young  men  who  found 
their  way  to  Northern  colleges,  or  abroad.  Until  ten  years 
ago  it  was  difficult  to  hold  Southern  conventions  and 
gatherings  of  intellectual  men  of  kindred  aims  because  peo- 
ple could  not  afford  to  travel.  Now  there  is  more  circu- 
lation, more  knowledge  of  the  world,  more  willingness  to 
see  in  what  respects  the  South  lags  behind,  a  greater  spirit 
of  cooperation  between  Southern  states,  and  with  some 
people  of  other  sections.  The  norms  of  common  schools, 
secondary  schools,  and  higher  institutions  are  now  laid 
down  on  about  the  same  principles  as  in  the  North,  and  it 
remains  to  develop  them,  to  make  paper  systems  actual,  to 
get  more  of  the  school  children  registered,  more  of  the 
registered  children  in  attendance,  more  months  of  school 
for  those  who  attend,  better  teachers  for  the  longer  sessions, 
new  buildings  to  accommodate  the  larger  numbers,  more 
students  to  fill  the  little  colleges  and  to  enlarge  the  uni- 
versities. White  education  in  the  South  is  in  a  progres- 
sive and  hopeful  condition. 

In  the  means  of  education  outside  of  schools  and  col- 
leges the  South  is  still  much  behind  the  richer  North,  and 
still  more  behind  foreign  countries.  Museums  and  picture 
galleries  are  few,  aside  from  private  collections  in  Balti- 
more, Washington,  Eichmond,  and  New  Orleans.  The 
fine  old  paintings  that  one  sees  in  clubs  and  public  build- 
ings come  from  an  earlier  age,  for  there  are  few  Southern 
artists.  Nevertheless,  the  architectural  standard  is  quite 
as  high  as  in  the  North,  and  the  tradition  of  wide  spaces 

304 


WHITE    EDUCATION 

and  colonnades  persists.  In  its  public  buildings  the  South 
is  in  general  superior  to  the  North ;  even  in  remote  county 
seats  one  may  find  buildings  old  and  new  of  classic  propor- 
tions, dignified  and  stately. 

The  South  has  been  poor  in  collections  of  books,  but  all 
the  larger  Universities  have  fair  libraries,  and  the  cities 
have  public  libraries,  and  the  numerous  gifts  of  Carnegie 
have  stimulated  this  form  of  public  education.  Several 
Southern  cities,  as,  for  example,  Galveston,  have  endowed 
institutions  for  lecture  courses  on  the  general  plan  of  the 
Lowell  courses  in  Boston. 

The  South  has  never  been  highly  productive  in  litera- 
ture, and  too  much  of  the  Southern  writing  bears  evidence 
of  a  purpose  of  speaking  for  the  South  or  in  a  Southern 
fashion.  A  considerable  part  of  the  books  written  by 
Southerners  are  about  the  South  in  one  way  or  another; 
there  is  a  sense  of  sectional  obligation.  This  is  the  less 
necessary  for  a  region  from  which  have  sprang  Poe,  one  of 
the  world's  acknowledged  literary  delights,  and  Lanier. 
There  is  a  school  of  Southern  writers,  of  whom  the  late 
Joel  Chandler  Harris  is  a  type,  who  have  found  broader 
themes  of  life  about  them  and  have  given  to  the  world  the 
delightful  flavor  of  a  passing  and  romantic  epoch.  The 
principal  literary  work  of  the  South  is  now  in  its  news- 
papers. 

Another  intellectual  force  is  found  in  the  Southern  his- 
torical societies,  of  which  there  is  one  in  almost  every  state. 
They  have  shown  a  lively  interest  in  saving  the  records  of 
the  early  history  of  the  South  and  in  preserving  its  me- 
morials from  destruction.  There  are  also  two  or  three  lit- 
erary periodicals  of  distinct  literary  merit,  in  which  one 
finds  an  expression  of  the  newest  and  most  modern  South. 

In  every  direction,  then,  the  white  people  of  the  South 
305 


THE    SOUTHEBN    SOUTH 

are  aljert.  The  schools  are  fair  and  improving,  the  com- 
munity is  awake  to  the  need  of  educating  all  the  children, 
even  in  the  remote  country ;  and  though  the  taxes  for  edu- 
cation are  still  very  light,  there  is  a  disposition  to  increase 
them.  In  Texas,  for  example,  where  there  is  a  state  tax, 
the  people  have  by  constitutional  amendment  authorized 
all  school  districts  to  double  that  amount  by  local  taxa- 
tion. If  the  Whites  were  the  only  people  to  be  educated, 
and  if  education  were  the  panacea,  if  it  brought  assurance 
of  good  government,  the  Southern  question  would  in  due 
time  take  care  of  itself. 

The  most  hopeful  sign  of  intellectual  progress  is  the 
association  of  those  most  interested  for  the  promotion  of 
their  common  ends;  such  is  the  Cooperative  Education 
Association  of  Virginia  which  holds  annual  meetings  and 
general  conferences  for  education.  These  meetings  are 
means  of  attracting  public  attention  to  the  problems  and 
of  suggesting  the  solution. 

For  many  years  education  of  the  Whites  in  the  South 
has  been  aided  from  the  North,  first,  through  considerable 
gifts  for  the  education  of  the  Mountain  Whites,  and  sec- 
ond, through  more  sparing  aid  to  colleges  for  Whites  in 
the  lowlands.  Recently,  however,  the  attention  of  wealthy 
Northern  givers  has  been  turned  to  the  importance  of  up- 
lifting the  whole  white  Southern  community,  and  after 
several  annual  visits  to  the  South  under  the  patronage  of 
Mr.  Eobert  C.  Ogden,  of  New  York,  a  Southern  Education 
Board  was  formed,  the  purpose  of  which  is  to  rouse  people 
to  the  need  of  improving  their  education;  following  it  is 
the  General  Education  Board,  which  makes  small  gifts  to 
educational  institutions  usually  on  the  stipulation  that  they 
shall  raise  a  conditional  amount  varying  from  an  equal  sum 
to  a  sum  three  times  as  great.  This  is  the  more  necessary 

306 


WHITE    EDUCATION 

as  there  are  only  two  or  three  institutions  in  the  South 
that  have  anything  like  an  adequate  endowment.  Tulane 
University  in  New  Orleans  has  a  property  of  several  mil- 
lions, and  the  University  of  Virginia  has  recently  raised  a 
new  million  outright,  but  the  South  has  no  large  body  of 
people  with  superfluous  funds  and  its  giving  turns  habit- 
ually rather  in  the  direction  of  church  construction  and 
foreign  mission  work  than  to  educational  institutions.  Of 
$1,400,000  given  to  the  University  of  Virginia  during  thirty 
years,  $900,000  came  from  Northerners  and  $270,000  more 
from  foreigners  living  in  the  South. 

Of  late,  voices  have  been  raised  for  some  kind  of  Fed- 
eral aid  to  Southern  education  on  the  plea  that  where  there 
is  the  greatest  intellectual  destitution  there  is  the  most 
need  for  money.  The  appeal  is  contrary  to  the  usual  in- 
stincts of  the  South  in  matters  of  federal  and  state  rela- 
tions, and  is  strongly  opposed  by  part  of  the  Southern 
press,  particularly  the  Manufacturers'  Record,  which  has 
waged  a  campaign  against  even  the  private  gifts  made 
through  the  General  Education  Board. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

NEGRO     EDUCATION 

HOWEVER  cheering  the  interest  in  general  public 
and  higher  education  throughout  the  South,  the 
Whites  get  most  of  the  benefit ;  the  lower  third  of 
the  people,  the  most  ignorant,  the  poorest,  the  least  ambi- 
tious, those  whose  debasement  is  the  greatest  menace  to  the 
community,  are  less  in  the  public  eye;  and  the  efforts  to 
educate  them  arouse  antagonism  of  various  kinds.  All  cal- 
culations as  to  numbers  of  pupils,  school  expenditures,  and 
public  opinion  as  to  education  are  subject  to  restatement 
when  the  Negroes  are  taken  into  account.  Even  in  states 
like  Maryland  and  Kentucky,  where  they  are  not  a  fourth 
of  the  population,  they  disturb  the  whole  educational  sys- 
tem, and  in  the  Lower  South,  where  they  are  in  many 
places  overwhelming  in  numbers,  the  problem  of  their  edu- 
cation becomes  alarming. 

Most  people  suppose  that  negro  education  began  dur- 
ing the  Civil  War,  but  it  is  as  old  as  colonization;  free 
Negroes  were  always  allowed  some  privileges  in  this  re- 
spect, and  thousands  of  slaves  were  taught  to  read  by  kind- 
hearted  mistresses  and  children  of  the  family ;  the  opinion 
of  one  who  has  carefully  explored  this  field  of  inquiry  is 
that  of  the  adult  slaves,  about  one  in  ten  could  read  and 
write.  Nevertheless,  this  practice  was  contrary  to  the 
principles  and  the  laws  of  the  South,  as  is  proved  by  the 

308 


NEGRO    EDUCATION 

dramatic  prosecution  of  Mrs.  Margaret  Douglass,  of  Nor- 
folk, in  1853,  for  the  crime  of  holding  a  school  for  free 
negro  children,  in  ignorance  of  the  fact  that  it  was  for- 
bidden as  "  against  the  peace  and  dignity  of  the  Common- 
wealth of  Virginia."  In  due  time  this  person,  who  had 
admitted  unhallowed  light  into  little  dark  souls,  was  duly 
sentenced  to  thirty  days'  imprisonment,  a  penalty  (as  the 
judge  explained)  intended  to  be  "  as  a  terror  to  those  who 
acknowledge  no  rule  of  action  but  their  own  evil  will  and 
pleasure." 

Both  the  teachings  and  the  prosecutions  establish  a 
general  belief  that  Negroes  could  easily  learn  to  read  and 
write ;  and  when  during  the  Civil  War  refugees  nocked  into 
the  Union  camps  at  Beaufort  and  Hilton  Head,  charitably 
disposed  people  in  the  North  sent  down  teachers ;  and,  the 
federal  government  cooperating,  schools  were  started 
among  those  Sea  Island  people,  then  rough,  uncouth,  and 
not  far  beyond  the  savage  state,  though  now  a  quiet,  well- 
ordered,  and  industrious  folk.  From  that  time  till  the 
giving  up  of  the  Freedman's  Bureau  in  1869,  the  federal 
government  expended  some  money  and  took  some  respon- 
sibility for  negro  education.  It  was  a  pathetic  sight  to  see 
old  gray-headed  people  crowding  into  the  schools  alongside 
the  children,  with  the  inarticulate  feeling  that  reading  and 
writing  would  carry  them  upward.  The  Northern  mis- 
sionary societies  kept  up  these  elementary  schools,  and  then 
began  to  found  schools  and  colleges  for  the  training  of  the 
most  gifted  members  of  the  race.  Out  of  their  funds,  and 
with  the  aid  of  the  freedmen,  they  put  up  schoolhouses, 
they  collected  money  to  establish  institutions  like  Fisk  Uni- 
versity in  Nashville,  Leland  and  Straight  Universities  in 
New  Orleans,  and  Atlanta  University.  Such  colleges  were 
on  the  same  pattern  as  other  colleges  for  Whites  both  North 

309 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

and  South,  adopting  the  then  almost  universal  curriculum 
of  Greek,  Latin,  and  mathematics,  along  with  smatterings 
of  other  subjects ;  they  included  preparatory  schools,  which, 
as  in  some  white  colleges  both  North  and  South,  included 
the  larger  number  of  the  recorded  students. 

Now  came  the  founding  of  rural  schools,  for  both 
Negroes  and  Whites;  all  the  Eeconstruction  constitutions 
provided  for  free  public  schools ;  and  since  that  time  there 
has  been  public  organized  education  for  the  colored  people, 
such  as  it  is,  in  every  state,  in  every  city,  and  in  most 
of  the  rural  counties  having  a  considerable  black  popula- 
tion. The  reaction  against  Eeconstruction  for  some  time 
bore  against  these  schools  and  they  have  come  along 
slowly.  When,  about  1885,  the  South  entered  upon  a  new 
career  of  education,  the  negro  schools  came  more  into  peo- 
ple's minds ;  but  they  have  not  advanced  in  proportion  to 
the  white  schools,  and  they  have  encountered  a  lively  hostil- 
ity directed  particularly  against  the  higher  forms  of  edu- 
cation. 

The  present  status  of  the  negro  common  schools  may 
be  summarized  from  the  report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Ed- 
ucation for  1906.  Taking  the  whole  South  together,  there 
were,  in  that  year,  over  2,900,000  colored  children  five  to 
eighteen  years  old,  of  whom  1,600,000,  or  little  more  than 
half,  were  enrolled  in  school,  while  of  the  white  children  of 
school  age  nearly  three  fourths  were  enrolled.  Out  of  1,- 
600,000  enrolled,  the  average  attendance  was  990,000, 
or  about  a  third  of  the  children  of  school  age,  while 
of  the  whites  it  was  3,000,000,  or  nearly  half  the  children 
of  school  age.  For  the  1,600,000  enrolled  negro  children, 
there  were  28,000  teachers,  or  1  to  57;  for  the  4,500,000 
white  children  over  100,000  teachers,  1  to  45.  The  annual 
expenditures  for  the  6,200,000  children  enrolled  (white 

310 


NEGRO    EDUCATION 

and  black)  were  $46,000,000,  but  to  the  negro  children 
(about  a  third  of  the  whole,  and  least  likely  to  be  edu- 
cated otherwise)  was  assigned  about  a  seventh  of  this  sum. 
To  state  the  same  thing  in  another  form,  in  nearly  all  the 
Southern  states  at  least  twice  as  much  was  spent  per  pupil 
on  Whites  as  on  Negroes. 

A  part  of  this  disparity  is  due  simply  to  the  fact  that 
the  superior  race  produces  the  larger  number  of  children 
capable  of  secondary  and  higher  training  and  has  more 
money  to  carry  its  children  along,  to  pay  their  expenses 
and  tuition  where  necessary,  in  order  to  give  them  a  start 
in  life.  That  consideration  does  not  account  either  for 
the  very  low  enrollment  or  low  attendance  of  negro  chil- 
dren. The  truth  is  that  the  majority  of  white  people,  who 
have  the  sole  power  of  laying  taxes  and  of  appropriating 
money  for  education,  think  that  the  Negroes  ought  not  to 
have  school  advantages  equal  to  those  of  white  children, 
or  advancing  beyond  a  common  school  education. 

The  mere  statistics  of  negro  schools  and  attendance 
after  all  carry  with  them  little  information.  What  kind 
of  pupils  are  they  ?  What  kind  of  school  buildings  are  pro- 
vided for  them  ?  What  is  the  character  of  their  teachers  ? 
Naturally,  among  both  races,  many  are  at  work  after  twelve 
or  fourteen  years,  but  the  percentages  of  enrollment  and 
attendance  are  so  much  less  than  those  of  the  white  people 
that  apparently  colored  children  are  less  likely  than  white 
to  be  sent  to  school  and  to  be  kept  there  when  started. 
Though  every  Northern  state  without  exception  has  some 
kind  of  compulsory  education,  not  a  single  Southern  state, 
except  Kentucky  and  Missouri,  has  enacted  it. 

Some  personal  knowledge  of  Southern  schools,  both  in 
cities  and  the  country,  suggests  several  reasons  why  the  at- 
tendance is  small.  Visit  this  negro  wayside  school  in  the 

311 


heart  of  the  piney  woods  near  Albany,  Ga.  The  build- 
ing is  a  wretched  structure  with  six  glass  windows,  some  of 
them  broken;  the  sky  visible  between  the  weatherboards. 
There  is  one  desk  in  the  room,  the  teacher's,  made  of  rough 
planks ;  the  floor  is  rough  and  uneven.  Of  the  forty-four 
children  enrolled,  none  of  whom  come  more  than  about 
three  miles,  thirty-two  are  present  on  a  pleasant  day ;  six  of 
them  appear  to  be  mulattoes.  They  wear  shoes  and  stockings 
and  are  quiet  and  well-behaved  but  sit  in  the  midst  of  dirt 
on  dirty  benches.  The  teacher  is  a  pleasant  woman,  wife 
of  a  well-to-do  colored  man  in  the  neighboring  town,  but 
apparently  untrained.  She  teaches  five  months  at  $35 
a  month.  Last  year  there  was  no  school  at  all  in  this 
district. 

Enter  another  school  at  Oak  Grove,  Ala.  The 
house  is  a  single  room,  twenty-five  feet  square;  larger 
than  is  needed,  like  many  of  the  schoolhouses,  because  it 
may  serve  also  for  church  services.  There  is  not  a  sash  in 
any  one  of  the  seven  windows,  each  having  a  hinged  shut- 
ter. The  teacher  has  a  table,  and  for  the  pupils  are  pro- 
vided several  rude  benches  with  or  without  backs ;  the  room 
is  furnished  with  a  blackboard  and  is  reasonably  clean; 
the  teacher,  a  young  man  eager  and  civil,  a  graduate  of  a 
neighboring  school  carried  on  by  the  Negroes  for  them- 
selves, holds  five  months'  school.  Take  another  school  near 
Albany,  Ga.,  in  a  tolerably  good  schoolhouse  built  by 
the  Negroes  themselves  with  some  white  assistance,  for  the 
county  commissioners  will  do  no  more  than  offer  $100 
to  a  district  that  will  spend  about  $300  more  on  a  build- 
ing. The  room  overcrowded,  four  or  five  at  a  desk;  twice 
as  many  girls  as  boys;  a  good  teacher  who  has  had  some 
normal  training;  a  book  for  each  group  of  three  in  the 
reading  class ;  the  lesson  about  a  brutal  Yankee  officer  who 

312 


NEGRO   EDUCATION 

compels  a  little  Southern  girl  to  tell  where  the  Confeder- 
ate officer  is  hiding.  The  children  read  well  and  with  ex- 
pression. 

These  are  probably  fairly  typical  of  the  rural  negro 
schools  throughout  the  South,  and  better  than  some.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  thousands  of  negro  children  have  no  oppor- 
tunity to  go  to  school,  because  the  commissioners  simply 
refuse  to  provide  school  in  their  district;  perhaps  because 
the  number  of  children  is  thought  too  few ;  perhaps  merely 
because  they  do  not  wish  to  spend  the  money.  In  a  town 
with  perhaps  2,000  Negroes  there  is  sometimes  only  one 
negro  teacher. 

Here  comes  in  the  effect  of  the  separate  school  system 
which  prevails  in  every  Southern  state,  in  the  District  of 
Columbia,  in  Indianapolis,  and  in  parts  of  New  Jersey. 
The  system  was  inaugurated  just  as  soon  as  the  Whites  ob- 
tained control  of  the  Reconstruction  government  after  the 
Civil  War,  and  it  goes  all  the  way  through:  seperate 
buildings,  separate  teachers,  separate  influences,  separate 
accounts.  The  reasons  for  it  are :  first,  the  belief  of  white 
parents  that  negro  children,  even  the  little  ones,  have  a 
bad  influence  on  the  white  children ;  second,  the  conviction 
that  mixed  schools  would  break  down  the  rigorous  sepa- 
ration of  races  necessary  to  prevent  eventual  amalgamation ; 
third,  the  blacks  are  niggers.  In  cities  and  towns  it  adds 
little  to  the  expense  to  keep  up  separate  buildings  and 
corps  of  teachers,  but  in  rural  districts,  where  the  number 
of  children  is  small,  the  expense  of  double  schools  may  be 
a  serious  matter. 

One  reason  why  the  schools  are  poor  is  that  the  pupils 
are  irregular,  and  one  reason  why  they  are  irregular  is 
that  the  schools  are  poor.  The  wretched  facilities  of  the 
rural  schools,  both  white  and  negro,  tend  to  drive  chil- 

313 


dren  out;  and  the  incompetent  teachers  do  not  make  par- 
ents or  children  fonder  of  school.  For  the  white  schools 
a  supply  of  reasonably  intelligent  young  men  and  women  is 
now  coming  forward.  As  to  the  Negroes,  with  few  excep- 
tions, every  teacher  is  a  Negro,  though  appointed  by  and 
supervised  by  some  white  authority ;  it  is  doubtful  whether 
half  the  negro  teachers  have  themselves  gone  through  a 
decent  common  school  education.  Many  of  them  are  ig- 
norant and  uneducated.  The  superintendent  of  the  town 
schools  at  Valdosta,  Ga.,  says :  "  There  are  to-day  outside 
of  the  cities,  not  more  than  one  half  dozen  teachers  in 
each  county. in  the  state,  upon  an  average,  who  can  hon- 
estly make  a  license  to  teach.  The  custom  in  most  coun^ 
ties  is  to  license  so  many  as  we  are  compelled  to  have  to 
fill  the  schools  from  among  those  who  make  the  most 
creditable  show  upon  examination.  School  commissioners 
do  not  pretend  to  grade  their  papers  strictly.  If  they  did 
three-fourths  of  the  negro  schools  would  be  immediately 
closed/' 

Conditions  are  not  much  better  in  the  towns,  where 
many  negro  teachers  earn  only  $150  to  $200  a  year; 
but  in  the  cities  the  negro  teachers  are  more  carefully  se- 
lected, for  they  can  be  drawn  from  the  local  negro  high 
schools  or  the  normal  schools.  But  the  colored  people  are 
said  to  scheme  and  maneuver  to  get  this  teacher  out  and 
that  one  in.  They  have  been  known  to  petition  against  a 
capable  and  unblemished  teacher  on  the  ground  that  she 
was  the  daughter  of  a  white  man,  and  it  was  immoral  for 
her  to  be  teaching  black  children. 

If  the  negro  common  schools  are  inferior  to  the  white, 
this  is  still  more  marked  in  their  secondary  public  schools, 
such  as  they  are.  No  principle  is  more  deeply  ingrained 
in  the  American  people  than  that  it  is  worth  while  to  spend 

314 


NEGRO    EDUCATION 

the  necessary  money  to  educate  up  to  about  the  eighteenth 
year  all  the  young  people  who  show  an  aptitude,  and  whose 
parents  can  get  on  without  their  labor.  The  Southern 
states  accept  this  principle,  but  for  such  education  the 
Negroes  have  few  opportunities.  Out  of  151,000  Southern 
young  people  in  public  and  private  high  schools,  6,500  high 
school  pupils  and  2,600  in  the  private  schools  are  Negroes. 
That  is,  a  third  of  the  population  counts  a  seventeenth 
of  the  secondary  pupils.  Most  of  the  so-called  negro  col- 
leges are  made  up  of  secondary  and  normal  pupils  who 
get  a  training  very  like  that  of  the  Northern  academies, 
and  some  favored  cities  have  public  high  schools  for  the 
Negroes.  This  is  the  case  in  Baltimore,  and  was  the  case 
in  New  Orleans  until  about  1903,  when  the  high  schools 
were  discontinued,  on  the  ground  that  the  Negro  could 
not  profit  by  so  much  education,  although  the  lower 
branches  of  the  high  schools  were  still  taught  in  the  upper 
rooms  of  the  negro  grammar  schools. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  there  are  more  than  a 
hundred  institutions  for  training  the  colored  people,  which 
draw  nothing  from  the  public  funds.  These  schools,  in 
part  supported  by  the  colored  people  themselves,  in  part 
by  Northern  gifts,  which  during  the  last  forty  years  have 
amounted  to  between  thirty  and  fifty  million  dollars,  are 
usually  better  than  the  public  schools,  and  have  more  op- 
portunities for  those  lessons  of  cleanliness  and  uprightness 
which  the  Negro  needs  quite  as  much  as  book  learning. 
Those  schools  are  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  the  South — so  much 
so  that  for  years  it  was  hardly  possible  to  get  any  Southern 
man  to  act  as  trustee ;  they  are  supposed  to  teach  the  negro 
youth  a  desire  for  social  equality;  they  are  thought  to 
draw  the  Negroes  off  from  cordial  relations  with  the  South- 
ern Whites ;  above  all,  they  include  the  higher  institutions 
21  315 


which  are  credited  with  spoiling  the  race  with  too  much 
Greek  and  Latin.  To  a  considerable  degree  the  schools  of 
this  type  are  mulatto  schools,  probably  because  the  people 
of  mixed  blood  are  more  intelligent  and  prosperous,  and 
more  interested  in  their  children's  future;  but  many  of 
them  are  planted  in  the  darkest  part  of  the  Black  Belt — 
such  as  the  Penn  School  in  the  Sea  Islands.  Wherever  they 
exist,  they  appeal  to  the  ambition  and  the  conscience  of  the 
Negro,  and  help  to  civilize  the  race;  they  are  not  only 
schools  but  social  settlements.  Alongside  the  earlier  schools 
and  colleges  planted  by  Northerners  in  the  regular  academic 
type,  during  the  last  thirty  years  have  arisen  first  Hamp- 
ton, then  Tuskegee,  and  then  many  like  schools,  built  up 
on  the  principle  of  industrial  training,  which  will  be  de- 
scribed in  the  next  chapter. 

The  Northern  schools  for  the  education  of  the 
Negroes  have  brought  about  one  of  the  unpleasant  features 
of  the  Southern  question  in  the  boycotting  of  the  Northern 
teachers,  both  men  and  women,  who  have  come  down  to 
teach  them.  This  practice  is  a  tradition  from  Eeconstruc- 
tion  times  when  it  was  supposed  that  the  Northern  teachers 
were  training  colored  youth  to  assert  themselves  against 
Whites.  They  expected  only  to  furnish  examples  and  in- 
citements to  the  Southern  people  themselves ;  hence  a  feel- 
ing of  bewilderment  and  grief,  because  from  the  very  be- 
ginning the  white  teachers  in  these  institutions  have  been 
under  a  social  ban  the  relentlessness  of  which  it  is  hard 
for  a  Northerner  to  believe.  An  educated  and  cultivated 
white  family  has  lived  in  a  Southern  city,  superior  intellec- 
tually and  morally  to  most  of  the  community  about  it;  yet 
no  friendly  foot  ever  crossed  its  threshold.  The  beautiful 
daughter,  easily  first  in  the  girls'  high  school,  never  ex- 
changed a  word  with  her  classmates  outside  the  school,  ex- 

316 


NEGRO    EDUCATION 

cept  when  called  upon,  as  she  regularly  was,  to  help  out  her 
less  gifted  fellows,  as  an  unpaid  and  unthanked  tutor — be- 
cause her  father  was  spending  his  life  in  trying  to  uplift 
the  Negro.  The  attitude  of  the  South  toward  most  of 
those  schools  is  one  of  absolute  hostility.  Even  an  institu- 
tion so  favorably  regarded  in  the  South  as  Hampton  Insti- 
tute has  been  prohibited  by  the  Legislature  of  Virginia 
(which  makes  it  a  small  money  grant)  from  selling  the 
products  of  its  industrial  department. 

The  negro  colleges  in  the  South  are  far  from  prosper- 
ous; planted  in  the  day  of  small  things  with  limited  en- 
dowments, frequented  by  people  who  have  little  money  to 
pay  for  tuition,  they  have  been  supported  from  year  to  year 
by  Northern  gifts  which  are  not  sufficient  to  keep  them 
up  to  modern  demands.  Though  some  of  them  have  toler- 
able buildings,  few  have  adequate  libraries,  laboratories,  or 
staff  of  specialist  instructors.  The  state  institutions  of  this 
grade  open  to  blacks  are  nearly  all  rather  low  in  standards, 
and  offer  little  inducement  for  academic  training ;  they  are 
either  normal  or  industrial  in  type.  The  better  off  of  the 
Negroes  send  their  sons  to  Northern  white  colleges  where 
they  may  receive  the  best  instruction  but  have  little  contact 
with  their  fellow  students.  So  far  from  the  number  of 
negro  college  graduates  being  too  great,  it  is  entirely  too 
small  for  the  immediate  needs  of  the  race.  They  must 
have  educated  teachers  and  trained  professional  men;  the 
negro  schools  will  never  flourish  without  competent  teachers 
and  supervisors  of  the  negro  race.  In  many  respects  the 
colleges  are  the  weakest  part  of  negro  education.  One 
school  in  which  numbers  have  had  good  training,  Berea 
College,  Kentucky,  has  now  been  abandoned  under  an 
act  of  the  state  legislature  forbidding  the  teaching  of 
Whites  and  Negroes  together,  but  an  industrial  school 

317 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

of  high  grade  will  be  provided  exclusively  for  the  col- 
ored race. 

As  DuBois  says :  "  If,  while  the  healing  of  this  vast 
sore  is  progressing,  the  races  are  to  live  for  many  years 
side  by  side,  united  in  economic  effort,  obeying  a  common 
government,  sensitive  to  mutual  thought  and  feeling,  yet 
subtly  and  silently  separate  in  many  matters  of  deeper  hu- 
man intimacy, — if  this  unusual  and  dangerous  develop- 
ment is  to  progress  amid  peace  and  order,  mutual  respect 
and  growing  intelligence,  it  will  call  for  social  surgery  at 
once  the  delicatest  and  nicest  in  modern  history.  It  will 
demand  broad-minded,  upright  men,  both  white  and  black, 
and  in  its  final  accomplishment  American  civilization  will 
triumph."  DuBois  calculates  that  in  the  twenty-five  years 
from  1875  to  1900  there  were  only  1,200  or  1,300  negro 
graduates  from  all  the  colleges  open  to  them  North  and 
South,  an  average  of  about  fifty  a  year  out  of  a  race  num- 
bering during  that  period,  on  the  average,  six  millions. 
Out  of  this  amount  about  half  have  become  teachers  or 
heads  of  institutions,  and  most  of  the  rest  are  professional 
men. 

Many  of  the  academic  and  normal  training  schools  of 
various  grades  are  situated  in  the  midst  of  large  colored 
populations,  and  take  upon  themselves  a  work  similar  to 
that  of  the  college  settlements  in  Northern  cities.  Such 
is  the  flourishing  school  at  Calhoun,  Ala.,  which  is  in 
the  midst  of  one  of  the  densest  and  most  ignorant  Negro 
populations  in  the  South,  and  besides  training  the  children 
sent  to  it,  it  has  supervised  the  work  of  breaking  up  the 
land,  which  is  sold  to  negro  farmers  in  small  tracts,  thereby 
giving  an  object  lesson  of  the  comfort  and  satisfaction  in 
owning  one's  own  land.  Most  such  schools  aim  to  be 
centers  of  moral  influence  upon  the  community  about  them. 

318 


Here,  again,  they  encounter  the  hostility  of  their  neighbors 
on  the  ground  that  they  are  putting  notions  into  the  heads 
of  the  Negroes,  and  are  destroying  the  labor  system  of  the 
community.  On  the  other  hand,  many  of  the  Whites  take 
a  warm  interest  in  these  schools,  although  not  a  single 
one  has  ever  received  any  considerable  gift  of  money  from 
Southern  white  people.  The  testimony  is  general  that  they 
are  well  taught,  preserve  good  order,  and  inculcate  decency 
of  person  and  life. 

Probably  the  most  effective  argument  in  favor  of  negro 
education  is  the  success  of  Hampton  and  Tuskegee,  two 
endowed  schools,  practically  kept  up  by  Northern  benefac- 
tors, which  are  the  great  exemplifiers  of  industrial  educa- 
tion. They  are  successful,  both  in  providing  for  large 
numbers  of  .students — about  3,000  altogether — and  in  pro- 
ducing an  effect  upon  the  whole  South.  The  number  of 
graduates  is  but  a  few  score  a  year,  and  many  of  them  go 
into  professions  for  which  they  were  not  directly  prepared 
in  these  schools.  But  great  numbers  of  men  and  women 
who  have  spent  only  a  year  or  two  in  these  institutions 
carry  out  into  the  community  the  great  lesson  of  self-help ; 
and  hundreds  of  schools  and  thousands  of  individuals  are 
moved  by  the  example  of  these  two  famous  schools  and 
similar  institutions  scattered  throughout  the  South.  They 
preach  a  gospel  of  work ;  they  hold  up  a  standard  of  prac- 
ticality ;  they  are  so  successful  as  to  draw  upon  themselves 
the  anathemas  of  men  like  Thomas  Dixon,  Jr.,  who  says : 
"  Mr.  Washington  ...  is  training  them  all  to  be  masters 
of  men,  to  be  independent.  ...  If  there  is  one  thing  a 
Southern  white  man  cannot  endure  it  is  an  educated 
Negro." 

The  question  is  imperative.  With  all  the  efforts  at  edu- 
cation, notwithstanding  the  great  reduction  in  the  per- 

319 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

centage  of  illiteracy,  the  number  of  negro  adult  men  and 
women  in  the  South  who  are  unable  to  read  and  write  is 
actually  greater  than  at  any  time  since  by  emancipation 
they  were  brought  within  the  possibilities  of  education. 
The  actual  task  grows  greater  every  day,  and  if  the  re- 
sources of  the  South  are  more  than  correspondingly  in- 
creased, it  is  still  a  question  how  much  of  them  will  be 
devoted  to  this  pressing  need.  Education  will  not  do 
everything ;  it  will  not  make  chaste,  honest,  and  respectable 
men  and  women  out  of  wretched  children  left  principally 
to  their  own  instincts.  Education  is  at  best  a  palliative, 
but  the  situation  is  too  serious  to  dispense  even  with  palli- 
atives. 

Perhaps  the  first  necessity  is  to  improve  the  character 
and  the  training  of  the  negro  teachers.  Both  in  the  rural 
and  the  city  schools  appointments  are  in  many  cases  made 
by  white  school  board  men  who  have  little  knowledge  and 
sometimes  no  interest  in  the  fitness  of  their  appointees. 
The  colleges  and  industrial  schools  all  have  this  problem 
in  mind.  State  normal  schools  for  Negroes  in  many  of 
the  Southern  states  try  to  meet  this  necessity,  but  a  great 
many  of  the  country  teachers,  some  of  them  in  the  expe- 
rience of  the  writer,  are  plainly  unsuited  for  the  task.  Some 
of  them  are  themselves  ignorant,  few  have  the  background 
of  character  and  intellectual  interest  which  would  enable 
them  to  transmit  a  moral  uplift. 

One  of  the  most  serious  difficulties  of  negro  education 
is  the  attendance,  or  rather  nonattendance.  Within  a 
few  weeks  after  the  beginning  of  school,  pupils  begin  to 
drop  out;  often  perhaps  because  the  teacher  cannot  make 
the  work  interesting.  One  of  their  own  number  says: 
"  Many  of  our  children  do  not  attend  school  because  our 
teachers  are  incompetent;  because  many  of  the  parents 

320 


NEGRO    EDUCATION 

simply  dislike  their  teachers;  because  some  parents  prefer 
Baptist  teachers;  because  many  children  have  their  own 
way  about  all  they  do ;  because  many  children  do  not  like 
a  strict  teacher;  because  some  parents  contend  for  a  fine 
brick  building  for  the  school;  because,  as  a  whole,  many 
parents  are  too  ignorant  and  prejudiced  and  contentious  to 
do  anything,  yet  we  have  enrolled  about  150  pupils  this 
session  in  spite  of  the  devil." 

Some  of  the  schools  are  overcrowded.  There  have  been 
cases  where  6  teachers  were  assigned  for  1,800  children,  of 
whom  570  enrolled,  yet  the  average  earnings  of  the  six 
teachers  would  not  be  more  than  $100  a  year.  Against 
these  instances  must  be  placed  a  great  number  of  intelligent, 
faithful  teachers  who  make  up  for  some  deficiencies  of 
knowledge  by  their  genuine  interest  in  their  work. 

For  negro  education  as  for  white,  but  perhaps  with 
more  reason,  it  is  urged  that  the  federal  government  ought 
to  come  in  with  its  powerful  aid.  The  argument  somewhat 
resembles  that  of  the  blind  Chinese  beggar  who  was  sent 
to  the  hospital  where  he  recovered  his  sight,  and  then  in- 
sisted that,  having  lost  his  livelihood,  he  must  be  made 
porter  to  the  hospital.  Aside  from  any  claim  of  right,  it 
is  true  that  the  problem  of  elevating  the  Negroes  concerns 
the  whole  nation,  and  is  a  part  of  the  long  process  of  which 
emancipation  was  the  beginning.  Federal  aid  for  colored 
schools,  however,  can  never  be  brought  about  without  the 
consent  of  the  Southern  states,  and  they  are  not  likely  to 
ask  for  or  to  receive  educational  funds  intended  solely  for 
the  Negroes;  while  Northern  members  of  Congress  are 
not  likely  to  vote  for  taxing  their  constituents  who  already 
pay  two  or  three  times  as  much  per  capita  for  education 
as  the  South,  in  order  to  make  up  the  deficiencies  of  the 
other  section.  It  is  impossible  to  discover  any  way  in 

321 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

which  federal  aid  can  be  given  to  the  Negroes  without  re- 
viving sectional  animosity ;  and  it  is  a  fair  question  whether 
such  gifts  could  be  so  hedged  about  that  they  would  not 
lead  to  a  corresponding  diminution  in  the  amount  spent  by 
the  Southern  states.  The  Government  grants  to  state  ag- 
ricultural colleges  and  experiment  stations  inure  almost 
wholly  to  the  advantage  of  the  Whites;  if  a  part  of  that 
money  could  be  devoted  to  the  education  of  the  Negro,  it 
might  be  helpful. 

Several  educational  trusts  created  years  ago  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Negroes  have  now  ceased  their  work.  The 
Peabody  fund  of  about  three  million  dollars  was  much  de- 
pleted by  the  repudiation  of  the  Mississippi  and  Florida 
bonds,  and  has  now  been  entirely  distributed.  For  some 
years  it  was  devoted  to  building  up  primary  teaching  on 
condition  that  the  localities  benefited  should  themselves 
spend  larger  sums.  Then  it  went  into  normal  schools.  In 
1882  the  Slater  fund  of  one  million  dollars  was  given  solely 
for  the  education  of  Negroes.  The  General  Education 
Board  in  its  allocations  to  Southern  institutions  has  liber- 
ally remembered  several  of  the  negro  institutions  as  well 
as  the  white. 


.},.    i 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

OBJECTIONS    TO    EDUCATION 

IN  the  two  previous  chapters  white  and  negro  education 
have  been  described  as  parts  of  the  social  and  govern- 
mental system  of  the  South;  there,  as  in  the  North, 
the  tacit  presumption  is  that  education  is  desirable,  that  it 
is  essential  for  moral  and  material  progress,  that  both  the 
parents  and  the  community  must  make  great  sacrifices  to 
secure  it.  White  education  hardly  needs  defense  in  the 
South ;  most  of  the  people  wish  to  see  the  opportunities  of 
life  open  to  promising  young  people,  believe  in  the  spread 
of  ideas,  and  look  on  education  as  the  foundation  of  the 
republic. 

Does  the  principle,  as  in  the  North,  apply  to  all  the 
elements  of  population  ?  Is  the  education  of  the  Negro  as 
clearly  necessary  as  that  of  the  White?  Should  the  same 
method  apply  to  the  training  of  the  two  races?  On  the 
contrary,  there  is  in  most  Southern  white  minds  hesitation 
as  to  the  degree  of  education  suitable  for  the  blacks;  and 
a  widespread  disbelief  in  any  but  rudimentary  training, 
and  that  to  be  directed  toward  industrial  rather  than  in- 
tellectual ends. 

The  first  objection  to  negro  education  is  that  the  race  is 
incapable  of  any  but  elementary  education  and  that  all  be- 
yond is  wasted  effort.  Has  the  Negro  as  a  race  an  inferior 
intellectual  quality,  a  disability  to  respond  to  opportunities? 

323 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

With  all  the  effort  to  educate  the  race,  and  with  due  regard 
to  the  fact  that  the  proportion  who  can  read  and  write  is 
rapidly  rising,  the  Negroes  are  alarmingly  ignorant,  the 
most  illiterate  group  in  the  whole  United  States ;  and  there- 
fore they  need  special  attention.  In  addition,  they  are 
subjected  to  the  smallest  degree  of  home  training,  and  en- 
joy the  smallest  touch  with  those  concentrated  forces  of 
public  opinion  which  force  the  community  upward.  Some 
of  the  Negroes  seek  intellectual  life  at  home,  for  occa- 
sionally you  see  a  family  grouped  about  the  fire  with  the 
father  reading  a  book  to  them ;  but  hardly  any  of  the  rural 
people  and  probably  few  of  the  townsmen  own  a  shelf 
of  books  and  magazines  and  newspapers.  Their  journalism 
is  in  general  rather  crude.  A  class  of  patent  inside  news- 
papers is  carried  on  by  the  heads  of  one  or  the  other  negro 
order;  and  they  contain  good  advice,  news  of  the  order, 
advertisements  of  patent  hair  dressings  which  "  make 
harsh,  stubborn,  kinky,  curly  hair  soft,  pliant  and  glossy  " ; 
and  descriptions  of  the  experiments  of  surgeons  in  making 
black  skin  white  by  the  use  of  X-rays.  Some  of  these 
papers  are  well  edited,  and  all  of  them  have  discovered  the 
great  secret  of  modern  journalism,  which  is  to  put  as  many 
proper  names  as  possible  into  the  paper. 

One  difficulty  with  the  negro  newspaper  is  that  it  can- 
not fill  up  entirely  with  colored  news ;  and  on  general  ques- 
tions and  the  progress  of  the  world  the  regular  white  news- 
papers, with  their  greater  resources,  are  certain  to  be  more 
readable.  Still,  few  Negroes  outside  the  cities  read  either 
weekly  or  daily  papers  regularly;  and  one  of  the  neces- 
sities for  raising  the  race  is  to  cultivate  the  newspaper 
habit.  To  be  sure,  there  is  a  type  of  highly  successful 
white  journalism  that  does  not  edify  the  white  race.  Yet 
even  a  bad  newspaper  cannot  help  telling  people  what  is 

324 


OBJECTIONS    TO    EDUCATION 

going  on  in  the  world.  In  spite  of  its  freight  of  crime, 
such  a  paper  carries  people  out  of  themselves,  makes  them 
feel  a  greater  interest  for  mankind,  brings  in  a  throng 
of  new  impressions  and  experiences,  helps  to  educate  them. 

Outside  of  newspapers  the  Negroes  have  access  to  the 
written  works  of  members  of  their  own  race,  which  are  at 
the  same  time  a  proof  of  literary  capacity  and  a  means  of 
teaching  the  people.  Of  course  it  is  always  urged  that 
such  men  as  Booker  Washington,  the  educator  and  up- 
lif ter ;  Dunbar,  the  pathetic  humorist ;  Chesnutt,  author  of 
stories  of  Southern  life  that  rival  Joel  Chandler  Harris 
and  Thomas  Nelson  Page;  DuBois,  who  in  literary  power 
is  one  of  the  most  notable  Americans  of  this  generation; 
Kelly  Miller,  the  keen  satirist ;  and  Sinclair,  the  defender 
of  his  people — prove  nothing  as  to  the  genius  of  the  races 
because  they  are  mulattoes;  but  they  and  their  associates 
are  listed  among  the  Negroes,  included  in  the  censure  on 
negro  colleges,  and  furnish  the  most  powerful  argument 
for  the  education  of  at  least  a  part  of  the  race.  Few  men 
of  genius  among  the  Negroes  are  pure  blacks;  but  it  is 
not  true  that  the  lighter  the  color  the  more  genius  they 
possess.  So  far  as  the  effects  of  a  prolonged  and  thorough 
education  are  concerned,  those  men  from  any  point  of  view 
prove  that  the  mulattoes,  who  are  perhaps  a  fifth  of  the 
whole,  are  entitled  to  a  thorough  education.  Has  not  Du- 
Bois the  right  to  say: 

"  I  sit  with  Shakespeare  and  he  winces  not.  Across  the 
color  line  I  move  arm  in  arm  with  Balzac  and  Dumas, 
where  smiling  men  and  welcoming  women  glide  in  gilded 
halls.  From  out  the  caves  of  evening  that  swing  between 
the  strong-limbed  earth  and  the  tracery  of  the  stars,  I  sum- 
mon Aristotle  arid  Aurelius  and  what  soul  I  will,  and  they 
come  all  graciously  with  no  scorn  nor  condescension.  So, 

325 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

wed  with  Truth,  I  dwell  above  the  Veil.  Is  this  the  life 
you  grudge  us,  0  knightly  America  ?  Is  this  the  life  you 
long  to  change  into  the  dull  red  hideousness  of  Georgia? 
Are  you  so  afraid  lest  peering  from  this  high  Pisgah,  be- 
tween Philistine  and  Amalekite,  we  sight  the  Promised 
Land?" 

On  the  other  hand,  the  history  of  the  last  thirty-five 
years  proves  conclusively  that  the  great  mass  of  negro 
children  can  assimilate  the  ordinary  education  of  the  com- 
mon schools.  Mr.  Glenn,  recently  Superintendent  of  Edu- 
cation in  Georgia,  declares  that  "the  negro  is  ... 
teachable  and  susceptible  to  the  same  kind  of  mental  im- 
provement characteristic  to  any  other  race,"  and  Thomas 
Nelson  Page  admits  that  the  "Negro  may  individually 
attain  a  fair,  and  in  uncommon  instances  a  considerable 
degree,  of  mental  development."  About  three  fourths  of 
the  young  people  have  already  learned  to  read. 

Many  people  intimately  acquainted  with  the  race  as- 
sert that,  although  about  as  quick  and  receptive  as  white 
children  up  to  twelve  or  fourteen  years  of  age,  the  negro 
children  advance  no  further;  that  their  minds  thencefor- 
ward show  an  arrested  development.  Certainly  anyone  who 
visits  their  schools,  city  or  rural,  public  or  private,  is  struck 
with  the  slowness  of  the  average  child  of  all  ages  to  take 
in  new  impressions,  and  with  the  intellectual  helplessness 
of  many  of  the  older  children.  Whether  this  is  due  to  the 
backwardness  of  the  race,  or  to  the  uncouthness  of  home 
life,  or  to  the  want  of  other  kinds  of  stimulus  outside  of 
school,  is  hard  to  determine.  That  there  is  any  general 
arrested  development  is  contradicted  by  thousands  of  capa- 
ble youths,  mulatto  and  full  blood. 

The  very  slowness  of  the  black  children  is  a  reason  for 
giving  them  the  best  educational  chance  that  they  can 

326 


OBJECTIONS    TO    EDUCATION 

take.  That  is  why  the  Southern  Education  Association 
which  met  in  1907  passed  a  unanimous  resolution  that: 
"  We  endorse  the  accepted  policy  of  the  States  of  the  South 
in  providing  educational  facilities  for  the  youth  of  the  ne- 
gro race.,  believing  that  whatever  the  ultimate  solution  of 
this  grievous  problem  may  be,  education  must  be  an  im- 
portant factor  in  that  solution." 

Another  point  of  view  is  represented  by  the  statement 
of  Thomas  Nelson  Page  that  the  great  majority  of  the 
Southern  Whites  "  unite  further  in  the  opinion  that  edu- 
cation such  as  they  receive  in  the  public  schools,  so  far 
from  appearing  to  uplift  them,  appears  to  be  without  any 
appreciable  beneficial  effect  upon  their  morals  or  their 
standing  as  citizens."  Governor  Vardaman,  of  Mississippi, 
as  late  as  1908  recommended  the  legislature  to  strike  out 
all  appropriations  for  negro  schools  on  the  ground  that 
"  Money  spent  to-day  for  the  maintenance  of  the  public 
school  for  negroes  is  robbery  of  the  white  man  and  a 
waste  upon  the  negro.  It  does  him  no  good,  but  it  does 
him  harm.  You  take  it  from  the  toiling  white  men  and 
women ;  you  rob  the  white  child  of  the  advantages  it  would 
afford  him,  and  you  spend  it  upon  the  negro  in  an  effort 
to  make  of  the  negro  that  which  God  Almighty  never  in- 
tended should  be  made,  and  which  man  cannot  accom- 
plish." He  asserts  that  the  most  serious  negro  crime  is 
due  to  "  The  manifestation  of  the  negro's  aspiration  for 
social  equality,  encouraged  largely  by  the  character  of  free 
education  in  vogue,  which  the  State  is  levying  tribute  upon 
the  white  people  to  maintain." 

In  Cordova,  S.  C.,  in  1907,  a  business  man  who 
had  visited  a  colored  school  and  spoken  encouragingly 
to  the  pupils,  felt  compelled  by  public  sentiment  to  print 
an  apology  and  a  promise  never  to  do  anything  so  dreadful 

327 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

again.  This  criticism  comes  not  simply  from  demagogues 
like  Vardaman  or  weaklings  like  the  Cordovan ;  intelligent 
planters  will  tell  you  that  they  are  opposed  to  negro  edu- 
cation because  it  makes  criminals ;  and  think  their  accusa- 
tion proven  by  instances  of  forgeries  by  Negroes,  which  of 
course  they  could  not  have  committed  had  they  been  unable 
to  write.  A  superintendent  of  schools  in  a  Southern  city 
holds  that  even  grammar  school  education  unsteadies  the 
boys  so  that  they  leave  home  and  drift  away;  though  he 
candidly  acknowledges  that  it  keeps  the  girls  out  of  trouble 
and  provides  a  respectable  calling  as  teachers  to  many 
negro  women. 

Side  by  side  with  this  feeling  of  disappointment  or  hos- 
tility, as  the  case  may  be,  is  the  conviction  of  most  South- 
ern people  that  enormous  sacrifices  have  been  made  for 
the  negro  schools.  Thomas  Dixon,  Jr.,  with  his  accus- 
tomed exactness  and  candor,  wrote  a  few  years  ago :  "  We 
have  spent  about  $800,000,000  on  Negro  education 
since  the  War."  These  figures  show  a  poverty  of  im- 
agination :  it  would  be  just  as  easy  to  write  "  eight  thou- 
sand millions  "  as  "  eight  hundred."  The  estimate  of  the 
Bureau  of  Education  is  that  in  the  thirty-five  years  since 
1870  about  $155,000,000  has  been  spent  to  support  com- 
mon schools  for  the  negro  race,  which  is  about  a  fifth  of 
the  amount  spent  on  the  white  common  schools  in  the  same 
period,  and  not  a  hundredth  of  the  supposed  present  wealth 
of  the  South ;  in  addition,  heavy  expenditures  are  made  out 
of  the  public  treasury  for  secondary  and  higher  education 
in  which  the  Negro  has  a  slender  share. 

Another  more  specious  complaint  with  regard  to  Negro 
education  is  that  it  is  an  unreasonable  burden  on  the 
Whites  to  make  them  pay  for  negro  education,  and  repeated 
attempts  have  been  made  to  lay  it  down  as  a  principle  that 

328 


OBJECTIONS   TO   EDUCATION 

the  Negroes  shall  have  for  their  schools  only  what  they  pay 
in  taxes.  Thus  Governor  Hoke  Smith,  of  Georgia,  says: 
"  Is  it  not  folly  to  tax  the  people  of  Georgia  for  the  purpose 
of  conducting  a  plan  of  education  for  the  Negro  which 
fails  to  recognize  the  difference  between  the  Negro  and 
the  white  man  ?  Negro  education  should  have  reference  to 
the  Negro's  future  work,  and  especially  in  the  rural  dis- 
tricts it  is  practicable  to  make  that  education  really  the 
training  for  farm  labor.  If  it  is  given  this  direction  it 
will  not  be  necessary  to  tax  the  white  man's  property  for 
the  purpose.  A  distribution  of  the  school  fund  according 
to  the  taxes  paid  by  each  race  would  meet  the  require- 
ments." 

In  at  least  two  states  this  idea  has  been  to  some  extent 
carried  out.  In  Kentucky  the  state  school  fund  is  appor- 
tioned among  the  school  children  without  regard  to  race, 
but  for  local  purposes  the  Negroes  appear  to  be  thrown  on 
their  own  payments.  And  in  Maryland,  under  various 
statutes  from  1865  to  1888,  all  the  taxes  collected  from 
Negroes  were  devoted  to  negro  schools,  the  state  adding  a 
lump  sum  per  annum. 

This  point  of  view  involves  a  notion  of  the  purpose  of 
education  and  the  reasons  for  public  schools  so  different 
from  that  which  animates  the  North  that  it  is  hard  to  deal 
with  the  question  impartially.  Massachusetts  makes  the 
largest  expenditure  per  capita  of  its  population  in  the  whole 
Union,  almost  the  largest  expenditure  per  pupil,  and  cer- 
tainly the  largest  aggregate  expenditure,  except  the  more 
populous  states  of  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  Illinois,  and 
Ohio;  Massachusetts  spends  on  schools  two  fifths  as  much 
every  year  as  all  the  fifteen  former  slaveholding  states  put 
together.  In  that  state  people  think  that  school  taxes  are 
not  money  spent  but  money  saved :  that  thoy  get  back 

329 


THE    SOUTHEKN    SOUTH 

every  cent  of  their  $17,000,000  a  year,  several  times  over, 
in  the  increased  efficiency  of  the  people,  in  the  diminution 
of  crime,  in  the  addition  to  the  happiness  of  life.  Schooling 
is  insurance,  schooling  is  the  savings  bank  that  can't  break, 
schooling  is  that  sane  kind  of  poor  relief  which  prevents 
poverty.  The  last  thing  which  any  Massachusetts  com- 
munity thinks  of  reducing  is  school  expenditure ! 

Furthermore,  no  principle  is  so  ingrained  in  the  North- 
ern, mind  as  that  since  education  is  for  the  public  benefit, 
every  taxpayer  must  contribute  in  proportion  to  his  prop- 
erty. The  rich  corporations  in  New  York  or  Pittsburg, 
childless  old  couples,  bachelor  owners  of  great  tracts  of  real 
estate,  wealthy  bondholders  educating  their  children  in 
private  schools,  never  dream  of  disputing  the  school  tax 
on  the  ground  that  they,  as  individuals,  make  no  demands 
on  the  school  fund. 

Still  less  would  it  enter  the  mind  of  any  Northern 
community  to  divide  itself  into  social  classes,  each  of  which 
should  maintain  its  own  schools.  Such  a  proposition  would 
go  near  to  bring  about  a  revolution.  First  of  all,  the 
non-taxpayer  is  a  taxpayer;  it  is  the  pans  asinorum  of 
finance  that  the  poor  are  more  heavily  taxed  in  proportion 
to  their  means  than  any  other  class  of  the  community, 
through  indirect  taxes  and  the  enhanced  rents  of  the  real 
estate  which  they  occupy.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  all  the 
taxes  eventually  paid  by  the  Negroes  in  the  South  prob- 
ably amount  only  to  a  third  or  a  half  of  the  three  millions 
or  so  spent  upon  their  schools.  What  of  that?  Are  the 
Southern  states  the  only  communities  in  the  country  in 
which  a  comparatively  small  part  of  the  population  pays 
most  of  the  taxes ;  it  is  altogether  probable  that  in  Boston 
or  New  York  the  payers  of  nine  tenths  of  the  taxes  do  not 
furnish  one  tenth  of  the  school  children.  Who  educates 

330 


OBJECTIONS   TO    EDUCATION 

the  Irish,  German,  Italian,  Jewish,  Greek,  and  Syrian  chil- 
dren of  those  cities?  The  well-to-do  part  of  the  commu- 
nity, and  it  does  it  uncomplainingly,  with  its  eyes  open, 
gladly.  The  South  likewise  is  educating  the  Negroes 
principally  for  the  advantage  of  the  white  race,  for  the 
efficiency  of  the  whole  region  in  which  the  Whites  have  the 
greatest  stake,  and  from  which  they  derive  the  greater  bene- 
fit, material  and  moral. 

One  of  the  most  obstinate  Southern  conventional  be- 
liefs, widely  held,  constantly  asserted,  and  diametrically 
contrary  to  the  facts,  is  that  the  Negroes  have  been  spoiled 
by  classical  education  which  has  totally  unfitted  them  for 
ordinary  life.  Thus  even  Murphy  holds  that  "  We  have 
been  giving  the  Negro  an  educational  system  which  is  but 
ill  adapted  even  to  ourselves.  It  has  been  too  academic, 
too  much  unrelated  to  practical  life,  for  the  children  of 
the  Caucasian."  The  intelligent  man  on  the  cars  will  tell 
you  that  the  negro  college  graduates  with  their  Greek  and 
Latin  are  spoiling  the  whole  race.  Never  was  there  such 
an  advertisement  of  the  vigor  of  college  education;  since 
the  official  statistics  show  that  the  actual  number  of 
Negroes  studying  Greek  and  Latin  in  1906,  both  in  the 
secondary  and  higher  schools  (except  the  public  schools), 
was  1,077  men  and  641  women,  a  total  of  1,718  persons. 
With  some  possible  additions  from  those  in  high  schools, 
and  higher  institutions,  the  total  number  of  colored  people 
who  are  now  taking  any  kind  of  collegiate  training  is  not 
above  3,000,  of  whom  only  180  took  degrees  in  1906 ;  there 
are  also  4,500  normal  students,  of  whom  1,270  graduated. 
Of  professional  students  there  were  in  all  (1906)  about  1,- 
900  Negroes,  a  third  of  whom  were  in  theology  and  an- 
other third  in  medicine.  Of  negro  colleges  and  technical 
schools  and  private  academies,  127  are  enumerated,  rang- 
22  331 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

ing  all  the  way  from  the  Arkadelphia  Baptist  Academy 
with  50  students,  up  to  Tuskegee  Normal  and  Indus- 
trial Institute  with  1,621  students ;  but  in  all  such  colleges 
those  ranked  as  taking  a  college  course  are  comparatively 
few. 

These  figures  throw  light  on  the  further  conventional 
belief  that  it  is  the  Northern  endowed  colleges  that  have 
made  the  trouble  in  the  colored  race,  through  efforts  to 
teach  the  colored  youth  that  they  were  the  equals  of  the 
Whites.  By  far  the  greater  number  of  Negroes  who  are 
really  getting  training  above  the  secondary  grade  in  the 
South  are  in  the  state-sustained  institutions — many  of 
them,  of  course,  still  of  low  grade;  and  full  credit  should 
be  given  to  the  South  for  developing  this  type  of  negro 
education,  of  which  the  North  knows  little.  State  Agri- 
cultural, Normal  or  Industrial  colleges  are  to  be  found 
in  every  former  slaveholding  state,  except  Arkansas  and 
Tennessee,  and  together  include  more  than  5,000  stu- 
dents. 

The  attacks,  chiefly  from  Southern  Whites,  upon  negro 
college  education  have  of  late  been  transformed  into  a  con- 
troversy as  to  the  relative  importance  of  academic  and 
industrial  training.  The  schools  of  the  Tuskegee  type  fur- 
nished manual  work  to  their  students  apparently  not  in 
the  first  instance  because  it  was  thought  to  be  educative, 
but  because  they  had  to  earn  part  of  their  living.  This  is 
apparently  the  main  source  of  the  bitter  hostility  of  Dixon 
to  the  work  of  Tuskegee.  The  form  his  criticism  takes 
is  that  Booker  Washington,  instead  of  teaching  the  Negro 
to  be  a  good  workman,  is  training  him  to  take  independent 
responsibility;  that  if  he  is  a  good  workman  he  will  com- 
pete with  the  Whites,  and  if  he  is  a  good  leader  he  will  aim 
to  make  the  Negroes  a  force  in  the  community.  This  line 

332 


OBJECTIONS    TO    EDUCATION 

of  objection  to  education  of  the  black  is  really  based  upon 
the  belief  that  they  are  a  race  capable  of  education,  that 
the  Negro  is  not  a  clod,  but  may  be  improved  by  the  sys- 
tematic efforts  of  superior  men ;  he  has  in  him  the  potenti- 
ality of  vital  force. 

Meanwhile  throughout  the  country  has  been  running  a 
current  in  favor  of  a  more  practical  education  than  that 
furnished  by  the  ordinary  schools,  and  the  result  has  been 
the  Technical,  Manual  Training,  and  Commercial  schools 
scattered  throughout  the  Northern  states.  The  controversy 
is  not  at  all  confined  to  questions  of  negro  education.  The 
Southern  white  people  have  been  well  inclined  toward  the 
new  type  of  education  for  Negroes,  although  on  the  whole 
much  preferring  the  academic  type  for  their  own  children. 

A  hot  discussion  has  raged  as  to  which  of  the  two  sys- 
tems is  most  necessary  to  the  Negro.  The  champions  of 
the  academic  side  dwell  upon  the  right  of  the  Negro  to  the 
same  type  of  education  as  the  white  man.  In  many  white 
minds  lies  a  lurking  feeling  that  academic  negro  training 
leads  to  discontent  with  present  conditions;  and  that  in- 
dustrial training  is  more  likely  to  bring  about  contentment 
with  the  things  that  are.  In  fact,  both  types  are  most  nec- 
essary. The  fifty  millions  poured  into  the  South  by  North- 
ern generosity  would  have  been  worth  while  if  they  had 
done  no  more  than  maintain  a  Hampton  which  could  train 
a  Booker  Washington.  His  ideas  of  thrift,  attention  to 
business,  building  decent  houses,  putting  money  into  banks, 
are  ideals  specially  needed  by  the  negro  race ;  but  they  also 
need  the  DuBois  ideal  of  a  share  in  the  world's  accumulated 
learning ;  of  the  development  of  their  minds ;  of  preparation 
to  educate  their  fellows.  That  a  supply  must  be  kept  up 
of  people  acquainted  with  the  humanities,  having  some 
knowledge  of  literature,  able  to  express  themselves  cogently, 

333 


THE    SOUTHERN   SOUTH 

competent  to  train  the  succeeding  generations,  is  as  true 
for  the  negro  race  as  for  any  other;  if  it  is  a  low  race  it 
has  the  greater  need  for  high  training  for  its  best  mem- 
bers. 

The  two  difficulties  with  manual  training  for  either 
Whites  or  Negroes  are,  first,  that  it  may  be  simply  practice 
in  handicrafts,  without  intimate  knowledge  of  tools  or 
processes,  possessing  no  more  educative  value  than  the  ap- 
prenticeship of  a  carpenter  or  a  blacksmith.  The  other 
danger  is  that  the  manual  part  will  be  dilettante ;  and  any- 
one who  has  ever  visited  any  large  industrial  school  for 
Whites  realizes  how  hard  it  is  to  keep  students  busy  with 
things  that  actually  tell.  The  weekly  hours  available  for 
shop  work  where  there  are  large  classes  are  too  few  to  in- 
duce skill.  Hence  manual  training  may  be  simply  a  means 
of  keeping  young  men  and  women  in  elevating  associations 
for  a  series  of  years,  without  much  positive  education.  The 
success  of  Hampton  and  Tuskegee  and  like  institutions  is 
due  to  a  judicious  mixture  of  book  learning  and  hand 
learning,  backed  up  by  the  personality  of  the  founders, 
General  Armstrong  in  Virginia  and  Booker  Washington  in 
Alabama,  and  of  their  successors  and  aids. 

Against  both  industrial  and  academic  training  many 
people  in  the  South  feel  a  strong  prejudice,  because  they 
believe  that  both  tend  to  produce  leaders  who  may  dan- 
gerously organize  the  fellows  of  their  race.  A  favorite 
form  of  slander  has  been  to  charge  that  the  graduates  of 
colleges  furnish  the  criminals,  and  practically  the  worst 
criminals,  of  the  negro  race.  Never  was  there  a  more 
senseless  or  a  more  persistent  delusion.  The  total  num- 
ber of  male  graduates  of  all  the  Southern  colleges  during 
the  last  forty  years  is  not  above  two  thousand,  besides 
perhaps  five  hundred  graduates  of  Northern  colleges  who 

334 


OBJECTIONS    TO    EDUCATION 

have  found  their  way  into  the  South.  Many  of  those  in- 
stitutions have  kept  track  of  their  graduates  and  are  able 
to  assert  that  the  cases  of  serious  crime  among  them  are 
remarkably  few,  no  more  in  proportion  probably  than 
among  the  graduates  of  Southern  and  Northern  colleges 
for  Whites.  The  moral  effect  of  the  colleges  among  Negroes 
is  in  the  same  direction  as  among  Whites ;  the  students  in- 
clude the  more  determined  of  the  race  or  the  children  of 
the  more  determined.  The  negro  college  students  are  still 
only  about  one  in  one  thousand  of  the  children  and  young 
people  of  the  race.  The  total  number  of  living  graduates 
of  negro  colleges  or  other  institutions  of  college  grade  are 
not  one  in  two  thousand  of  the  Negroes  in  the  South. 

It  is  true  that  even  that  number  find  it  hard  to  estab- 
lish themselves  in  professions  or  callings  which  can  re- 
ward them  for  the  sacrifices  and  efforts  of  their  education. 
The  negro  doctors  and  lawyers  have  almost  no  white  prac- 
tice and  not  the  best  of  negro  practice,  but  there  is  an 
opening  for  thousands  of  Negroes  in  the  development  of  the 
education  of  their  people.  The  thousandth  of  the  race  in 
secondary  schools  and  the  two  thousandth  or  more  in  col- 
leges are  enough  to  prove  that  a  large  number  of  individuals 
in  the  race  are  capable  of  and  ought  to  have  the  advan- 
tages of  higher  training. 

The  denial  to  the  Negroes  of  public  secondary  educa- 
tion at  the  expense  of  the  state  practically  means  that 
most  of  them  will  not  have  it  at  all.  It  is  denied  on  the 
ground  that  it  unfits  boys  and  girls  for  life — exactly  the 
argument  which  has  been  unsuccessfully  brought  against 
schools  of  that  grade  in  the  Northern  states.  It  is  denied 
on  the  ground  that  beyond  twelve  years  of  age  most  of 
the  Negroes  are  stationary  and  cannot  profit  by  a  secondary 
education,  a  conclusion  which  does  not  seem  justified  by 

335 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

the  experience  of  the  few  high  schools  and  the  numerous 
private  and  benevolent  schools.  Still  more  serious,  the  de- 
nial of  secondary  education  means  that  the  Negroes  are 
deprived  of  the  most  obvious  means  of  training  for 
teachers  of  their  own  race. 

In  the  last  analysis  most  of  the  objections  to  negro 
education  come  down  to  the  assertion  that  it  puts  the  race 
above  the  calling  whereunto  God  hath  appointed  it.  The 
argument  goes  back  to  the  unconscious  presumption  that 
the  Negro  was  created  to  work  the  white  man's  field,  and 
that  even  a  little  knowledge  makes  him  ambitious  to  do 
something  else. 

One  thing  is  certain :  that  no  community  can  afford  to 
neglect  the  academic  side  of  education.  The  schools  are 
to  many  people  the  only  and  the  final  appeal  to  the  higher 
side  of  life,  the  only  touch  with  the  world's  stock  of  great 
thoughts.  The  accusation  is  brought  against  the  best 
Northern  city  schools  that  they  are  not  practical,  because 
they  deal  too  much  with  literature  and  history  and  science. 
The  negro  child,  like  the  white  child,  needs  to  have  its 
mind  aroused  to  the  large  things  in  the  world;  needs  the 
education  of  thinking,  as  well  as  of  learning;  as  DuBois 
puts  it :  "  To  seek  to  make  the  blacksmith  a  scholar  is 
almost  as  silly  as  the  more  modern  scheme  of  making  the 
scholar  a  blacksmith ;  almost,  but  not  quite." 

On  the  side  of  the  Negro  there  are  other  complaints. 
One  is  that  his  education  has  not  had  a  fair  trial ;  that  the 
dominant  South  which  lays  and  expends  the  taxes  has  not 
dealt  with  the  Negro  on  an  equal  footing  with  white  chil- 
dren ;  that  the  per  capita  expenditure  on  the  black  children 
in  school  is  probably  not  more  than  a  third  that  for  white 
children;  that  the  negro  schools  have  often  been  exploited 
by  white  politicians  who  have  put  in  their  own  favorites 

336 


OBJECTIONS   TO    EDUCATION 

as  teachers;  that  even  where  the  best  intentions  prevail, 
the  schools  are  manned  by  incompetent  teachers;  nowhere 
do  the  rural  colored  people  enjoy  an  education  to  the  de- 
gree and  with  the  kind  of  teachers  and  appliances  common 
in  the  country  districts  of  the  North ;  the  race  can  hardly 
be  spoiled  by  education,  for  it  has  never  had  it,  not  for  a 
single  year.  Only  about  a  third  of  the  negro  children  arc 
at  school  on  a  given  school  day.  Few  of  their  rural  schools 
hold  more  than  five  months,  many  not  more  than  three, 
some  not  at  all ;  and  in  from  sixty  to  one  hundred  days  in 
the  year,  irregularly  placed,  with  teachers  on  the  average 
not  competent  for  the  exceedingly  elementary  work  that 
they  do,  the  wonder  is  that  children  ever  go  a  second  day 
or  acquire  the  rudiments  of  learning;  yet  many  of  them 
learn  to  read  fluently,  to  write  a  good  hand,  and  to  do 
simple  arithmetical  problems.  A  race  must  have  some  in- 
tellectual quickness  to  pick  up  anything  out  of  such  a  poor 
system.  The  arguments  in  favor  of  negro  education  have 
so  far  been  convincing  to  every  Southern  community,  since 
negro  common  schools  are  maintained  and  considerable 
amounts  are  spent  for  secondary  and  higher  education. 

The  arguments  against  negro  education  destroy  each 
other;  they  assume  both  that  the  Negro  is  too  little  and  too 
much  affected  by  the  education  that  he  receives.  On  one 
side  we  are  told  that  he  is  incapable  of  anything  more  than 
the  rudiments ;  on  the  other  side,  that  education  is  a  potent 
force  making  the  Negro  dangerous  to  the  world.  The  in- 
competent can  never  be  made  dangerous  by  training  into 
competence.  Education  cannot  change  the  race  weaknesses 
of  the  Negro;  but  it  can  give  a  better  chance  to  the  best 
endowed. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

POSTULATES    OF    THE    PBOBLEM 

THAT  the  South  confronts  a  complexus  of  problems 
difficult  and  almost  insoluble  is  clear  to  all  onlook- 
ers, Northern  or  Southern,  candid  or  prejudiced. 
So  far  this  book  has  undertaken  to  deal  rather  with  condi- 
tions than  with  remedies,  to  state  questions  without  trying 
to  answer  them,  to  separate  so  far  as  may  be  the  real  aspi- 
rations and  progress  of  the  Southern  people  of  both  races 
from  conventional  beliefs  and  shop-worn  statements  which 
overlie  the  actualities. 

Such  an  analysis  of  the  physical  and  human  elements 
of  Southern  life  prepares  the  way  for  a  discussion  of  a 
different  nature.  Shall  the  thriftless  part  of  the  Southern 
community  remain  at  its  present  low  average  standard  of 
productivity?  Are  the  lower  Whites  and  the  still  lower 
Negroes  moving  upward,  however  slowly?  Can  the  two 
races  come  to  an  understanding  which  will  mean  peace  in 
our  time?  Are  there  positive  remedies  for  a  state  of 
things  admittedly  alarming  ?  Any  attempt  to  answer  these 
questions  means  some  repetition  or  restatement  of  things 
already  treated  at  greater  length.  A  first  step  may  well 
be  to  summarize  the  whole  Southern  problem  as  it  presents 
itself  to  the  writer's  mind. 

( 1 )  The  South  as  a  whole,  on  any  basis  of  material  ad- 
vancement, is  below  the  average  of  other  parts  of  the  Union 

338 


POSTULATES    OF   THE    PROBLEM 

and  of  several  foreign  countries;  it  is  poor  where  it  ought 
to  be  rich;  it  needs  economic  regeneration. 

(2)  Measured  by  intellectual  standards  also  the  white 
South  is  below  the  other  sections  of  the  Union;  the  high 
standing  of  its  leaders  does  not  bring  up  the  average  of 
the  more  numerous  elements.     Any  radical  improvement, 
therefore,  must  include  the  uplift  of  the  lower  stratum  of 
Whites. 

(3)  The  South  is  divided  between  two  races,  one  of 
which  is  distinctly  inferior  to  the  other,  not  only  in  what 
it  now  does,  but  in  the  potentialities  of  the  future. 

(4)  The  lower  race  is  so  far  behind,  and  so  likely  to 
lag  indefinitely,  that  it  is  necessary  for  the  welfare  of  the 
community  that  the  two  be  kept  separate;  and  this  stern 
edict  applies  not  only  to  the  pure  African  race,  but  also  to 
the  two  millions  of  mixed  bloods,  many  of  whom  in  apti- 
tude and  habits  of  thought  are  practically  white  men. 

(5)  Both  these  races  are  improving,  the  Whites  in 
great  numbers  and  rapidly;  fewer  of  the  Negroes  propor- 
tionally, and  more  slowly. 

(6)  The  criminality  of  both  races,  and  especially  the 
violent  criminality  of  the  Negroes,  brings  into  the  contro- 
versy an  element  of  personal  rage  and  fear. 

(7)  Partly  by  superior  abilities,  partly  by  an  inherited 
tradition,  partly  for  trie  defense  of  the  community,  the 
white  race  dominates  in  every  department  of  social,  indus- 
trial, and  political  life ;  it  owns  most  of  the  property ;  makes 
the  laws  for  the  black  man ;  furnishes  for  him  the  machin- 
ery of  government  and  of  justice ;  and  inexorably  excludes 
him  from  both  the  social  and  political  advantages  of  the 
community. 

(8)  This  race  division  interferes  with  the  American 
principle  of  equality — that  is,  the  equal  right  of  every  man, 

339 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

woman,  and  child  to  do  the  best  thing  that  his  abilities  and 
training  allow,  the  inferior  doing  the  best  in  his  stratum, 
the  superior  the  better  best  of  his  class. 

(9)  The  two  races  do  not  live  together  harmoniously. 
The   Whites   fear   some  kind  of  negro  domination — the 
Negroes  resent  the  complete  control  by  the  Whites;  actual 
collisions  are  rare,  but  there  is  a  latent  race  hostility. 

(10)  The  white  people,  though  they  assume  sole  re- 
sponsibility for  whatever  adjustment  is  made,  know  little 
of  the  private  life  of  the  best  Negroes,  and  exercise  small 
direct  influence  on  the  lower  race.     Hence  the  ordinary 
agencies  of  uplift — the  church,  the  school,  and  contact  with 
superior  minds — are  not  brought  into  operation. 

(11)  The  main  reason  for  this  want  of  touch  with  the 
Negroes  is  an  apprehension  that  any  common  understand- 
ing will  assist  a  social  equality  which  might  lead  to  mis- 
cegenation. 

The  Southern  problem,  therefore,  to  state  it  in  a  sen- 
tence, is  how  twenty  million  Whites  and  ten  million  Ne- 
groes in  the  Southern  states  shall  make  up  a  community  in 
which  one  race  shall  hold  most  of  the  property,  and  all  the 
government,  and  the  other  race  shall  remain  content  and 
industrious;  in  which  one  gets  most  of  the  good  things 
of  life  and  the  other  does  most  of  the  disagreeable  work ; 
in  which  the  superior  members  of  the  inferior  race  shall 
accept  all  its  disadvantages;  in  which  one  race  shall  al- 
ways be  at  the  top  and  the  other  forever  at  the  bottom ;  yet 
in  which  there  shall  be  peace  and  good  will. 

To  these  conditions,  discouraging,  hard,  implacable  to 
innocent  people,  out  of  accord  with  the  usual  American 
principles,  any  effective  remedy  must  nevertheless  adjust  it- 
self. Practically  all  Southern  people  agree  that  the  ques- 
tion is  alarming,  but  they  are  at  odds  among  themselves  as 

340 


to  the  remedy;  and  they  may  be  roughly  divided  into  the 
intolerant,  the  discouraged,  and  the  moderate. 

(I)  Examples  of  passionate  violence  are  plenty,  and 
Professor  J.  W.  Garner,  a  Southerner,  suggests  some  rea- 
sons for  their  abundance :  "  Next  to  the  difficulties  arising 
mainly   from   the   changed   industrial   conditions   in   the 
South  and  their  resulting  effect  upon  the  character  of  the 
black  race,  the  most  serious  obstacle  in  the  way  of  main- 
taining harmonious  relations  between  the  two  races  is  the 
persistent,  ill-timed,  and  often  intemperate  agitation  of  the 
race  question  by  a  certain  class  of  politicians  lately  sprung 
up  in  the  South,  whose  chief  stock  in  trade  is  the  race  is- 
sue.    Their  method  consists  in  working  upon  the  sympa- 
thies of  a  certain  class  of  whites  by  appealing  to  their 
passions  and  prejudices,  by  dwelling  upon  the  brutality  and 
savagery  of  the  negro,  by  conjuring  up  imaginary  dangers 
of  negro  supremacy,  by  exaggerating  real  dangers  and  in 
every  conceivable  way  exalting  the  negro  problem,  as  a 
political  issue,  to  a  position  out  of  all  proportion  to  its  real 
importance." 

The  truth  of  this  statement  may  be  illustrated  from 
the  published  conclusions  of  some  writers  and  speakers  who 
are  representative  of  the  most  radical  type  of  Southern 
feeling.  For  instance,  Hoke  Smith,  Governor  of  Georgia 
in  1908,  has  declared  that  "  the  development  made  by  the 
Negro  in  the  South  came  through  the  institution  of  slavery, 
from  the  control  of  an  inferior  race  by  a  superior  race. 
I  believe  that  control  was  absolutely  necessary  for  the  de- 
velopment which  the  Negro  made.  The  continuation  of 
control  is,  in  a  measure,  necessary  to  retain  for  the  great 
mass  of  Negroes  the  progress  made  by  them  while  in  slav- 
ery." 

(II)  Hoke  Smith  is  far  from  representing  the  general 

341 


or  the  average  view  in  the  South.  Some  of  the  best  spirits 
there  who  feel  the  responsibility  of  their  race  are  at  their 
wit's  end  over  the  whole  question  and  see  no  way  out  of 
the  difficulty.  Thus  a  lawyer  of  Birmingham,  Ala.,  writes : 
"  If  my  heart  did  not  go  out  for  the  Negro,  as  a  human  be- 
ing, or  I  cared  less  for  my  God  and  an  earnest  wish  to 
walk  in  His  ways,  I  would  kill  the  Negro  or  die  trying. 
God  must  intend  that  TIME  shall  work  out  His  ways 
and  not  the  men  of  my  generation,  for  after  a  longer  life 
than  most,  and  all  of  it  spent  with  and  among  the  Negroes, 
I  give  it  up.  .  .  .  Credit  the  Southern  people  with  pre- 
serving the  Negro,  with  teaching  him  Christ,  with  good 
will.  .  .  .  Education  will  do  some  good — perhaps  more 
than  I  believe,  but  I  verily  believe  that  we  must  have 
the  Negro  all  born  again  before  we  can  teach  him  what 
to  do." 

(Ill)  Of  the  more  hopeful  group  of  reflective  men  in 
the  South  there  are  many  spokesmen,  who  suggest  various 
sorts  of  remedies  not  always  in  accord. 

Ex-Congressman  William  H.  Fleming,  of  Georgia,  puts 
it  that  "  We  do  not  know  what  shifting  phases  this  vexing 
race  problem  may  assume,  but  we  may  rest  in  the  conviction 
that  its  ultimate  solution  must  be  reached  along  the  lines 
of  honesty  and  justice.  Let  us  not  in  cowardice  or  want 
of  faith  needlessly  sacrifice  our  higher  ideals  of  private 
and  public  life.  Race  differences  may  necessitate  social 
distinction.  But  race  differences  cannot  repeal  the  moral 
law.  .  .  .  The  foundation  of  the  moral  law  is  justice.  Let 
us  solve  the  negro  problem  by  giving  the  negro  justice 
and  applying  to  him  the  recognized  principles  of  the  moral 
law.  This  does  not  require  social  equality.  It  does  not 
require  that  we  should  surrender  into  his  inexperienced 
and  incompetent  hands  the  reins  of  political  government. 

342 


POSTULATES    OF   THE   PROBLEM 

But  it  does  require  that  we  recognize  his  fundamental 
rights  as  a  man." 

Senator  John  Sharp  Williams,  of  Mississippi,  protests 
against  "Indiscriminate  cursing  of  the  whole  negro  race, 
good  and  bad  alike  included.  .  .  .  Above  all,  remember 
this:  it  is  not  the  educated  negro  who  commits  unspeak- 
able crime;  he  knows  the  certain  result.  It  is  the  brute 
whose  avenues  of  information  are  totally  cut  off." 

Leroy  Percy,  of  Greenville,  Miss.,  pleads  for  protection 
of  the  black  man :  "  Daily,  in  recognition  of  the  weakness 
of  human  nature,  the  prayer  goes  up  from  millions  to  a 
higher  power:  'Deliver  me  from  temptation — temptation 
which  I  cannot  face  and  overcome  I  pray  Thee  to  deliver 
me  from.'  There  is  no  greater  temptation  known  to  man 
than  the  hourly,  daily,  yearly  dealing  with  ignorant,  trust- 
ing people.  ...  So  justice,  self-interest,  the  duty  which 
we  owe  to  ourselves  and  those  who  follow  us,  all  demand 
that  we  should  not  permit  to  go  unchallenged,  should  not 
acquiesce  in  the  viciously  erroneous  idea  that  the  negro 
should  be  kept  in  helpless  ignorance." 

From  this  summary  of  general  views  it  is  evident  that 
even  the  most  moderate  white  men  pleading  for  the  rights 
of  their  black  neighbors  practically  all  tacitly  accept  cer- 
tain postulates  as  to  any  possible  remedies,  which  they  be- 
lieve to  be  quite  beyond  discussion  and  which  may  be  ana- 
lyzed as  follows: 

(I)  The  first  is  the  dominance  of  the  white  race, 
which  will  not  surrender  any  of  the  present  privileges.  As 
Page  puts  it :  "  The  absolute  and  unchangeable  superiority 
of  the  white  race — a  superiority,  it  appears  to  him,  not 
due  to  any  mere  adventitious  circumstances,  such  as  su- 
perior educational  and  other  advantages  during  some  cen- 
turies, but  an  inherent  and  essential  superiority,  based  on 

343 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

superior  intellect,  virtue,  and  constancy.  He  does  not  be- 
lieve that  the  Negro  is  the  equal  of  the  White,  or  ever 
could  be  the  equal."  That  means  that  the  low  Negro  is 
inferior  to  the  low  White,  the  average  Negro  to  the  average 
White,  and  the  superior  Negro,  however  high  his  plane, 
moral  and  intellectual,  is  also  to  be  put  into  a  position  of 
permanent  inferiority  to  the  higher  Whites.  Because  in- 
ferior morally  and  mentally,  he  is  held  also  in  political  in- 
feriority. The  South  does  not  intend  that  even  intelligent 
and  educated  Negroes  shall  have  a  share  in  making  or  ad- 
ministering the  laws. 

(II)  Partly  from  a  sense  of  its  own  superiority,  partly 
from  a  disdain  of  a  formerly  servile  race,  chiefly  from  a 
well-founded  belief  that  amalgamation  would  be  a  great 
misfortune  for  the  community,  the  South  is  determined 
that  there  shall  be  no  legalized  admixture  of  the  races. 
That  miscegenation  is  still  going  on  in  an  unknown  de- 
gree heightens  the  determination  that  it  shall  at  least  be 
put  under  the  ban  of  law;  the  very  danger  makes  the 
South  more  determined  that  the  races  shall  be  kept  sep- 
arate. 

(III)  The  dominant  white  Southerners  are  further  ab- 
solutely determined  that  any  settlement  of  the  question 
shall  come  from  their  volition;  and  that  means  that  the 
Southern  Negro  is  not  expected  to  exercise  anything  more 
than  a  mild  academic  influence.     The  character  of  the 
Negroes,  their  thriftlessness  or  industry,  their  crime  or 
virtue,  their  stupidity  or  their  intelligence,  may  deflect  the 
white  mind  one  way  or  another;  their  preferences,  outside 
the  iron  fence  which  the  South  has  erected  round  the  ques- 
tion, will  receive  some  attention;  but  they  will  have  to 
accept  what  the  white  people  assign  to  them. 

(IV)  The  South  is  as  yet  little  awakened  to  the  idea 

344 


POSTULATES    OF   THE    PROBLEM 

that  the  status  of  the  lower  Whites  is  a  part  of  the  whole 
race  problem.  Inasmuch  as  the  Poor  White  is  emerging 
from  seclusion  and  poverty,  people  do  not  sufficiently 
realize  that  he  needs  education,  intellectual  and  moral; 
that  his  passions,  his  animal  instincts,  his  violence  stand 
in  the  way  of  the  uplift  of  both  races. 

(V)  The  North  is  expected  by  the  South  not  to  act 
by  legislation  or  any  other  active  method  in  behalf  of  the 
Negro.     The  Southerners  in  general  consider  the  Fifteenth, 
or  suffrage  Amendment,  to  be  an  affront,  which  they  avoid 
by  shifty  clauses  in  their  constitutions  and  would  repeal  if 
they  could.     Some  Southerners  resent  even  inquiry  about 
the  South,  and  apparently  remember  how  their  fathers  re- 
ceived visiting  abolitionists. 

(VI)  It  would,  however,  be  a  great  injustice  to  the 
immense  number  of  broad-minded  people  in  the  South  to 
leave  the  impression  that  nobody  down  there  welcomes  in- 
vestigation or  reads  criticisms.     Upon  the  negro  question 
in  general  there  are  two  different  and  opposing  Southern 
points  of  view.     The  one-sided  and  arrogant  statements  of 
the  Vardamans,  the  Dixons,  the  Graveses,  and  the  Tillmans 
have  no  right  to  call  themselves  the  voice  of  the  South, 
in  the  face  of  the  appeals  to  common  justice  and  American 
principles  of  fair  play  that  flow  from  the  pens  of  the 
Bassetts,  the  Murphys,  the  Mitchells,  the  Flemings,  and  the 
Percys.     It  is  a  happy  omen  that  the  South  is  divided 
upon  its  own  question;  for  it  means  that  the  taboo  has 
been  taken  off  discussion ;  that  Southern  men  may  honestly 
differ  on  the  question  of  the  rights  and  the  character  of 
the  Negro. 

On  the  one  side  is  a  numerous  class  of  Whites,  some 
coarse  and  ignorant,  others  of  power  and  vitality,  including 
many  small  farmers  and  managers  of  plantations,  and  also 

345 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

a  large  element  in  the  towns,  who  are  not  much  interested 
in  the  uplift  of  the  Whites  and  do  not  wish  well  to  the 
Negro,  but  are  full  of  a  blind  hostility  to  the  negro  race 
and  take  the  ground  that  this  is  a  white  man's  government, 
and  accept  the  Negro  only  as  a  tool  for  their  use. 

On  the  other  side  stand  a  great  part  of  the  high-bred, 
well-educated  and  masterful  element ;  the  people  who  count 
in  the  church,  the  club  and  university,  the  pulpit  and  the 
bench;  people  who  have  a  material  interest  and  genuine 
public  spirit  in  providing  for  the  future  of  their  own  com- 
monwealth. In  general  the  best  people  in  the  South,  the 
most  highly  trained,  most  public-spirited,  most  religious, 
wealthiest,  and  most  responsible  people  wish  well  to  the 
Negro.  The  plantation  owner,  the  manufacturer,  the  rail- 
road manager,  want  efficient  laborers;  the  minister  wants 
God-fearing  people;  the  judge  wants  law-abiding  men; 
the  educator  wants  good  schools;  they  all  want  to  raise 
the  community,  the  bottom  as  well  as  the  top.  How  far 
is  the  superior  class  in  the  South  to  control  the  action  of 
legislatures  and  the  movement  of  public  sentiment,  and 
the  behavior  of  those  of  a  ruder  cast?  Which  of  these 
two  classes  speaks  for  the  South? 


CHAPTER   XXV 

THE    WBONQ    WAY    OUT 

EXCEPT  within  the  postulates  stated  in  the  last 
chapter,  there  can  be  no  rational  expectation  of 
improvement  of  race  relations  in  the  South.   Even 
within  those  conditions  many  suggestions  are  from  time  to 
time  made  which  are  out  of  accord  with  white  and  negro 
character,  with  the  physical  conditions,  or  with  the  general 
trend  of  American  life.    Before  coming  to  practical  reme- 
dies, it  is  necessary  to  examine  and  set  aside  these  no- 
thoroughfares. 

First  of  all,  can  the  Southern  race  question  be  solved 
by  any  action  of  the  North?  The  Reconstruction  amend- 
ments with  the  clause  authorizing  Congress  to  enforce  them 
by  "  appropriate  legislation  "  seem  intended  to  give  the  fed- 
eral government  power  to  protect  the  Negro  against  either 
state  legislation  or  individual  action;  but  the  Supreme 
Court  in  the  Civil  Rights  decision  of  1883  held  that 
the  action  of  Congress  under  those  amendments  was  con- 
fined to  meeting  positive  official  action  by  state  govern- 
ments. The  Fourteenth  Amendment  provides  for  a  spe- 
cial penalty  in  case  of  deprivation  of  political  rights,  by 
reducing  the  representation  in  Congress  of  the  states  which 
limit  their  suffrage.  Any  such  legislation  must  be  general 
in  terms  and  would  therefore  apply  to  the  Northern  states 
in  which  there  are  educational  or  tax  qualifications.  Be- 
23  347 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

yond  that  difficulty  is  the  remembered  ill  effect  of  Recon- 
struction laws,  and  the  conviction  in  the  North  that  the 
negro  problem  is  not  one  simply  of  race  hostility  and 
definition  of  rights — that  the  Negroes  are  in  many  ways 
a  menace.  To  take  the  matter  a  second  time  out  of  the 
hands  of  the  people  on  the  ground,  even  though  they  are 
not  solving  their  own  problems,  would  mean  a  storm  in 
Congress,  a  weight  on  the  administration,  possibly  a  con- 
test with  the  Supreme  Court,  which  no  responsible  North- 
ern public  man  likes  to  contemplate. 

Through  the  control  of  Congress  over  federal  elections 
there  is  another  opportunity  to  interfere  in  behalf  of  the 
Negro,  but  the  federal  laws  put  on  the  statute  book  in 
Reconstruction  times  were  repealed  in  1894;  and  nobody 
now  proposes  to  renew  them.  By  the  recent  experience  of 
the  nation  in  the  Philippines,  Porto  Rico,  and  Cuba,  a  les- 
son has  been  taught  of  the  difficulty  of  handling  non-Euro- 
pean races.  The  nation  begins  to  doubt  the  elevating  power 
of  self-government.  For  whatever  reason,  there  is  no  evi- 
dence of  any  intention  in  the  North  to  make  the  Negro  the 
ward  of  the  nation.  The  writer  is  one  of  those  who  believe 
that  any  general  federal  legislation  would  revive  friction 
between  the  sections,  would  sharpen  the  race  feeling  in 
the  South,  and  in  the  end  could  accomplish  little  for  the 
uplift  of  the  Negro;  even  federal  aid  to  education  could 
hardly  be  so  managed  as  to  keep  up  the  feeling  of  white 
responsibility  from  which  alone  proper  education  of  the 
Negro  can  be  expected. 

Is  there  any  likelihood  of  a  private  propaganda  in  be- 
half of  the  Negro  like  that  of  the  abolitionists?  A  con- 
siderable class  of  Northern  people  have  a  warm  sense  of 
resentment  at  what  they  think  the  injustice  and  cruelty  of 
the  superior  race,  especially  in  the  withdrawal  of  the  suf- 

348 


THE  WRONG  WAY  OUT 

frage  by  state  constitutional  amendments;  and  there  is  a 
lively  interest  in  the  education  of  Negroes  and  in  work 
among  the  Poor  Whites.  A  propaganda,  with  societies, 
public  meetings,  journals,  and  a  literature  is,  however,  no 
longer  possible — the  North  has  too  much  on  its  own  hands 
in  curing  the  political  diseases  of  its  cities,  in  absorbing 
the  foreigners;  like  Congress,  it  recognizes  that  the  South 
is  sincere,  even  if  somewhat  exaggerated,  in  its  nervousness 
about  the  Negroes.  The  most  that  can  be  expected  of 
Northern  individuals  in  the  way  of  bettering  Southern  con- 
ditions is  attempts  like  that  of  this  volume  to  get  into  the 
real  nature  of  the  problems  and  to  offer  good  advice. 

Notwithstanding  the  horror  felt  toward  amalgamation, 
from  time  to  time  in  unexpected  Southern  quarters  re- 
appears the  suggestion  that  it  is  impossible  for  the  two 
races  to  live  alongside  each  other  separate,  and  that  the 
logical  and  unavoidable  outcome  is  fusion ;  that  the  relent- 
less force  of  juxtaposition  is  too  much  for  law  or  prejudice 
or  race  instinct.  Over  and  over  again  one  is  told  that  no- 
where in  history  is  there  an  example  of  two  races  living 
side  by  side  indefinitely  without  uniting.  This  is  not  his- 
torically true;  Mohammedans  and  Hindoos  (originally  of 
the  same  race)  have  lived  separate  hundreds  of  years  in 
India;  Boers  and  Kaffirs  have  been  side  by  side  for  near 
a  century;  the  English  colonists  and  the  American  Indians 
were  little  intermixed.  Amalgamation  could  only  be  ac- 
complished by  a  change  in  white  sentiment  about  as  prob- 
able as  the  Mormonization  of  the  Northern  Whites;  and  if 
it  were  possible,  it  would  lead  to  a  new  and  worse  race 
question,  the  rivalry  of  a  mixed  race  occupying  the  whole 
South  against  a  white  race  in  the  rest  of  the  country,  which 
would  make  all  present  troubles  seem  a  pleasant  interlude. 
Amalgamation  as  a  remedy  welcomed  by  the  Southern 

349 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

Whites  is  unthinkable;  as  a  remedy  against  their  convic- 
tions, brought  about  by  time,  it  is  highly  unlikely. 

At  the  other  extremity  is  the  idea,  now  more  than  a 
century  old,  that  the  way  to  get  rid  of  the  race  question  is 
to  remove  one  of  the  races  altogether.  This  notion  of  cur- 
ing the  patient  by  sending  him  to  a  hospital  for  incurables 
goes  back  to  1775.  Jefferson  favored  it;  the  Colonization 
Society  organized  it  in  1816,  and  in  the  forty  years  from 
1820  to  1860  succeeded  in  sending  about  ten  thousand 
Negroes  to  Liberia.  Abraham  Lincoln  favored  it.  It  is 
often  suggested  nowadays.  This  plan,  if  it  could  be  car- 
ried out,  would  so  completely  relieve  the  immediate  diffi- 
culties that  it  deserves  the  most  careful  consideration. 

The  first  objection  at  the  outset  is  ten  million  objec- 
tions— namely,  the  Negroes  themselves,  who  have  never 
taken  kindly  to  expatriation,  for  the  simple  reason  that  it 
is  flying  to  evils  that  they  know  not  of.  The  second  diffi- 
culty is  to  find  a  place  to  receive  the  exiles.  Experiments 
in  the  West  Indies,  in  Central  America,  and  in  Africa  have 
all  been  failures.  No  European  country  or  colonies  will 
welcome  people  sent  away  on  the  ground  that  they  are 
inimical  to  white  civilization;  and  the  settlements  of 
American  Negroes  in  savage  Africa  have  been  entire  fail- 
ures. As  has  been  shown  above,  Liberia,  after  nearly 
ninety  years  of  existence,  has  no  influence  on  the  back 
country;  its  trade  is  scanty,  its  health  is  depleted,  and  its 
conditions  are  in  every  way  less  favorable  to  physical  and 
moral  well-being  than  those  of  the  United  States. 

Then  follows  the  financial  difficulty;  to  be  sure  a  cor- 
respondent of  a  Georgia  newspaper  suggests :  "  Let  the 
government  appropriate  $20,000,000  for  five  successive 
years  each  for  deportation,  judiciously  forcing  off  first  the 
ages  from  eighteen  to  forty-five,  as  far  as  can  be  done  with- 

350 


out  too  violent  a  separation  of  dependent  ages,  and  five 
years  will  substantially  settle  the  exodus.  All  separations 
can  be  reunited  in  a  few  years  and  not  a  negro's  heart 
broken.'*  But  a  single  hundred  millions  would  be  only  a 
drop  in  the  bucket.  To  bring  over  the  ten  million  for- 
eigners now  in  the  United  States,  and  get  them  started  in 
a  country  abounding  in  work  and  opportunities,  has  prob- 
ably averaged  a  cost  of  a  hundred  dollars  a  head,  or  one 
thousand  millions.  The  thing  must  be  done  completely, 
if  at  all;  for  from  the  point  of  view  of  its  advocates,  to 
expatriate  a  part  of  the  race  would  be  like  cutting  out  a 
portion  of  a  cancer;  and  where  are  you  going  to  find,  say, 
a  thousand  million  dollars  to  carry  away  ten  million  people 
upon  the  proceeds  of  whose  continued  labor  in  America 
you  must  depend  for  the  Southern  share  of  the  money? 

In  the  next  place,  would  a  world  which  still  has  tears 
for  the  Acadians  deported  from  Nova  Scotia  in  1755,  which 
is  aroused  by  the  banishment  of  political  suspects  to  Si- 
beria, be  impressed  with  the  high  civilization  of  a  nation 
which  would  send  ten  million  people  to  their  death  in  a 
continent  where  as  yet  neither  Briton,  Frenchman,  Portu- 
guese, or  German  has  ever  been  able  to  establish  any  con- 
siderable colony  of  European  emigrants?  If  the  superior 
race,  with  all  its  resources,  prudence,  and  medical  skill  can- 
not live  in  Africa,  what  would  become  of  ten  million 
Xegroes  deported  on  the  plea  that  they  were  not  capable 
of  participating  in  the  white  man's  civilization?  Though 
descended  from  Africans  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose 
that  they  have  transmitted  immunity  from  the  deadly 
tropical  diseases. 

Again,  there  is  not  a  state,  city,  or  county  populous  with 
Negroes  in  the  South  which  would  not  resent,  and  if  need 
be  resist,  the  sudden  taking  away  of  its  laborers.  When- 

351 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

ever  the  question  is  brought  to  an  issue,  the  Southern  people 
admit  that,  with  all  the  race  difficulties,  the  Negro  does 
raise  the  cotton  and  drive  the  mule;  and  without  him  the 
white  man  must  take  the  hoe  and  the  reins.  As  John 
Sharp  Williams  puts  it :  "  The  white  people  of  the  South 
do  not  want  to  hasten  the  departure  of  the  good  negroes ; 
.  .  .  whenever  you  suggest  that  he  leave  the  Southern 
darky  replies  in  Scriptural  phrase,  '  Ask  me  not  to  leave 
thee.'  They  are  here,  and  they  are  going  to  remain  here 
so  long  as  there  is  a  cotton  field  in  sight."  The  people  who 
preach  expatriation,  deportation,  elimination,  or  whatever 
they  choose  to  call  it,  are  not  the  people  who  employ  the 
Negro  or  wish  him  well,  or  would  be  pleased  to  see  him 
succeed  in  any  hemisphere. 

A  milder  suggestion  is  that  the  essential  Negro  be 
slowly  and  quietly  replaced  by  somebody  else.  What  some- 
body else?  Shall  it  be  Northerners?  Senator  Williams, 
of  Mississippi,  says :  "  I  would  like  to  see  established  a 
great  land  company  with  a  capital  of  about  a  million 
dollars,  to  buy  lands  in  the  cotton  States  and  sell  them 
out  to  home-seeking  immigrants  on  a  ten  years'  instalment 
plan."  In  1907  the  Southern  press  was  convinced  that  a 
great  flow  of  immigration  had  set  in  from  the  North, 
but  in  reality  outside  of  Florida  and  Texas  nearly  all 
colonies  of  Northerners  have  been  unsuccessful,  though 
there  is  a  slow  stream  of  people,  partly  from  the  Northwest, 
who  take  up  farms  in  the  South  and  mix  with  the  South- 
ern white  population.  These  people  are  prone  to  be  dis- 
satisfied with  the  schools;  they  are  in  despair  over  the 
wretched  domestic  service ;  the  women  are  filled  with  terror 
by  the  lynchings  and  by  the  frequent  cause  of  them ;  the 
newcomers  dislike  the  Negroes  more  than  the  Southern- 
born  people  dislike  them,  and  cannot  be  depended  upon  to 

352 


THE  WRONG  WAY  OUT 

remain  a  permanent  part  of  the  population.  In  any  case, 
they  do  not  replace  the  negro  laborer  for  wages. 

The  only  hope  of  a  substitute  population  of  plantation 
hands  is  in  the  foreign  immigrants,  who  have  been  described 
in  a  previous  chapter,  and  of  whom,  up  to  1909,  the  South 
seems  to  have  expected  a  brisk  influx.  The  federal  gov- 
ernment even  set  out  to  build  immigrant  stations  in  Charles- 
ton and  Savannah.  But  in  1907  all  the  Southern  ports 
(excepting  Baltimore)  together  received  only  21,000  out  of 
1,300,000.  To-day  the  whole  scheme  is  a  failure  and  there 
is  no  prospect  of  importing  large  numbers  of  foreigners  to 
work  for  wages.  A  member  of  Congress  from  Mississippi 
recently  declared  from  his  seat  in  the  House  that  there 
was  a  conspiracy  of  federal  and  Italian  officials  to  prevent 
Italians  from  coming  into  his  state. 

The  first  reason  for  the  failure  of  the  promising  plan 
is  the  many  undoubted  cases,  and  the  more  rumored  and 
reported  instances,  of  peonage  of  white  men.  In  the  sec- 
ond place  the  Italians,  who  have  been  chiefly  relied  upon, 
have  no  intention  of  spending  their  lives  and  bringing  up 
their  children  as  plantation  laborers ;  they  work  so  well  and 
are  so  profitable  to  both  the  plantation  owners  and  them- 
selves that  after  a  few  years  they  save  money  enough  to 
do  something  that  they  like  better,  and  that  is  the  end  of 
their  service  on  other  people's  land.  The  experience  of 
South  Carolina  in  1906,  detailed  in  the  chapter  on  Immigra- 
tion, seems  conclusively  to  prove  that  most  foreigners  pre- 
fer the  North  because  they  think  they  are  better  treated 
there. 

The  fundamental  difficulty  with  the  whole  plan  of  im- 
migration is  that  a  great  many  people  in  the  South  be- 
lieve that  the  average  foreigner  is  an  undesirable  member 
of  the  community.  They  have  no  familiarity  with  that 

353 


THE   SOUTHERN   SOUTH 

grinding-down  process  by  which  even  unpromising  races 
are  transformed  into  Americans.  They  read  of  the 
"  Black  Hand,"  which  is  not  very  different  from  some 
forms  of  the  old  Ku  Klux  Klan;  of  the  Vendetta,  which 
can  be  paralleled  in  the  Southern  mountains;  and  they 
show  little  willingness  to  receive  even  the  better  foreign 
elements  on  equal  terms.  It  is  a  fair  question  whether  if 
the  Italians,  for  example,  should  come  to  have  a  majority 
of  votes  in  Louisiana  they  would  ever  be  permitted  to 
elect  and  inaugurate  a  governor  out  of  their  own  number ; 
whether  the  phrase  "White  man's  government"  does  not 
apply  as  much  against  the  "  Dago  "  as  against  the  Negro. 

If  the  Negroes  cannot  be  replaced,  is  it  not  possible  to 
segregate  them  into  districts  of  their  own?  For  forty 
years  a  process  has  been  going  on  by  which  the  black 
counties  grow  blacker  and  the  white  counties  become  whiter ; 
Negroes  move  into  the  counties  where  there  is  most  work 
and  therefore  the  greatest  number  of  laborers,  and  the 
Whites  gradually  move  out  of  the  districts  in  which  the 
Negroes  are  very  numerous.  Could  not  that  process  be 
carried  still  farther  ?  Some  people  in  despair  predict  that 
the  Whites  will  eventually  find  their  way  into  the  West 
and  Northwest,  leaving  the  fruitful  South  to  the  Negro. 
Although  there  is  a  steady  drift  of  white  people  out  of  the 
Southern  states,  it  is  of  the  same  kind  as  the  movement 
from  New  England  and  the  Middle  states  to  the  West, 
and  the  Whites  have  not  the  slightest  intention  of  aban- 
doning their  section;  buildings  go  up,  mills  appear,  sky- 
scrapers intensify  the  city,  and  in  every  Southern  state  the 
Whites  grow  richer  and  more  powerful. 

The  desired  result  might  be  brought  about  if  the 
Negroes  would  move  to  other  parts  of  the  Union,  and  much 
is  made  of  the  present  drift  into  the  Northern  cities,  but  the 

354 


THE  WRONG  WAY  OUT 

conditions  of  life  are  not  favorable  to  them  there,  and  their 
number  is  only  kept  up  by  new  immigrations.  Booker 
Washington  advises  the  Negro  to  stay  in  the  South  because 
"  The  fact  that  at  the  North  the  Negro  is  confined  to  al- 
most one  line  of  employment  often  tends  to  discourage  and 
demoralize  the  strongest  who  go  from  the  South,  and  to 
make  them  an  easy  prey  to  temptation."  Many  of  the  keen- 
est observers  in  the  South  desire  that  the  Negroes  should 
spread  through  the  country,  partly  to  relieve  the  pressure 
in  the  South,  and  partly  in  the  conviction  that  it  would 
furnish  an  object  lesson  to  the  Northern  people  of  the  dis- 
advantage of  the  presence  of  Negroes.  Whatever  the  num- 
ber of  emigrant  Negroes  out  of  the  South,  the  number  left 
there  goes  on  steadily  increasing  from  decade  to  decade; 
and  whenever  they  show  a  disposition  to  leave  in  large  num- 
bers, the  Southerners  oppose  and  resist,  because  they  see 
no  hope  of  supplying  their  place  with  any  other  than  more 
negro  laborers. 

Could  the  two  races  divide  the  land  into  districts? 
Such  a  separation  is  favored  both  by  Bishop  Turner,  a 
negro  leader,  and  by  John  Temple  Graves,  of  Atlanta,  a 
negro  hater,  and  there  are  a  few  examples  of  such  sepa- 
rate communities.  Many  white  counties  and  a  few  white 
towns  will  not  admit  Negroes;  and  in  perhaps  half  a 
dozen  colored  villages  no  white  man  lives.  Here  is  per- 
haps an  opportunity  for  considerably  reducing  race  fric- 
tion, for  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  such  separate 
towns  go  backward  in  civilization;  and  they  give  oppor- 
tunities for  negro  business  and  professional  men,  which 
are  important  for  the  encouragement  of  the  best  members 
of  the  race.  The  most  serious  practical  objection  is,  how- 
ever, that  such  towns  take  away  laborers,  actual  or  poten- 
tial, from  the  white  plantations;  and  the  industrial  cotton 

355 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

system  depends  on  keeping  those  Negroes  on  other  peo- 
ple's land. 

A  broader  proposition  is  phrased  by  Heed  in  the 
"  Brother's  War  " — "  Let  us  give  the  negro  his  own  State 
in  our  union.  .  .  .  We  are  rich  enough  and  have  land 
enough  to  give  the  negro  this  State,  which  is  due  from 
us.  His  especial  need  is  to  exercise  political  and  civil  priv- 
ileges, in  his  own  community,  all  the  way  up  from  the  town 
meeting  to  congress."  Possibly  this  remedy  might  have 
been  applied  forty  years  ago,  but  it  is  now  absolutely  un- 
workable. When  Reed  suggests  that  the  Negro  be  allowed 
to  take  over  some  state  and  carry  it  on  as  a  negro  com- 
munity, the  instant  question  is,  which  state?  Louisiana 
will  not  allow  her  laborers  to  go  en  masse  to  Texas;  and 
Texas  would  drive  them  back  with  shotguns  from  the 
border  if  they  tried  to  move.  The  blackest  states  have 
the  least  disposition  to  become  blacker,  the  lighter  states 
are  just  as  determined  to  remain  light;  and  since  there  is 
no  longer  any  great  area  of  good  land  not  taken  up  by 
anybody,  colonization  of  the  Negro  within  the  limits  of 
the  United  States  is  impossible. 

Could  the  desired  result  of  keeping  Whites  and  Negroes 
from  too  confining  a  contact  be  reached  by  a  less  drastic 
method  ?  A  favorite  suggestion  eloquently  championed  by 
Grady  is  "race  separation,"  which  he  defined  to  mean: 
"  That  the  whites  and  blacks  must  walk  in  separate  paths 
in  the  South.  As  near  as  may  be,  these  paths  should  be 
made  equal — but  separate  they  must  be  now  and  always. 
This  means  separate  schools,  separate  churches,  separate 
accommodation  everywhere — but  equal  accommodation 
where  the  same  money  is  charged,  or  where  the  State  pro- 
vides for  the  citizen."  That  is,  in  every  city  Negroes  are  to 
occupy  separate  quarters,  go  to  separate  schools,  ride  in 

356 


THE   WRONG   WAY    OUT 

separate  sections  of  the  street  cars,  use  separate  sidewalks, 
buy  in  separate  stores,  have  separate  churches,  places  of 
amusement,  social  organizations,  banks,  and  insurance  com- 
panies. This  system,  which  in  many  directions  has  al- 
ready been  carried  out,  rests  upon  a  conviction  of  the 
Negro's  ability  to  maintain  an  economic  and  intellectual 
life  of  his  own,  without  danger  to  the  white  race.  It  has 
the  great  disadvantage  of  cutting  off  the  third  of  the  pop- 
ulation which  most  needs  uplift  from  the  influences  which 
bear  for  progress.  It  still  further  diminishes  that  associ- 
ation of  the  superior  with  the  inferior  race,  that  kindly 
interest  of  employer  in  employee,  that  infiltration  of  cul- 
ture and  moral  principles  which  is  the  mightiest  influence 
among  the  white  people. 

Furthermore,  where  is  the  black  man  to  acquire  the 
skill  to  carry  on  his  own  enterprises,  to  build  cotton  gins 
and  oil  mills,  to  stock  stores,  to  found  banks,  if  he  is  to 
be  separated  from  the  white  man  ?  Where  is  he  to  buy  his 
goods?  Here  the  whole  system  breaks  down;  the  drum- 
mer is  no  respecter  of  persons,  and  not  only  is  willing  to 
sell  to  a  solvent  Negro,  but  is  likely  to  insist  that  the 
negro  merchant  shall  not  give  all  his  orders  to  a  colored 
wholesaler.  Then  what  is  to  be  done  with  the  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  landowners,  tenants,  croppers,  and  wage 
hands,  who  depend  on  advances  from  the  Whites?  There 
is  no  such  thing  as  commercial  segregation;  as  in  other 
directions,  when  any  remedy  is  proposed  which  means  the 
cutting  off  of  negro  labor,  or  of  the  profits  derived  from 
negro  custom,  the  South  invariably  draws  back. 

On  the  other  hand,  race  separation  would  give  greater 
opportunities  to  the  Negroes  and  reduce  the  contact  with 
the  lower  class  of  the  Whites,  out  of  which  comes  most  of 
the  race  violence  in  the  South.  It  is  substantially  the 

357 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

method  applied  in  Northern  cities,  though  nowhere  to  any 
such  degree  as  in  the  South.  It  is  a  method  which,  with 
all  its  hardship  to  Negroes  of  the  higher  class,  comes  near- 
est being  a  modus  vivendi  between  the  races. 

As  for  white  communities  without  Negroes,  there  are 
many  such  in  the  mountain  regions,  and  an  unsuccessful 
effort  was  made  in  the  town  of  Fitzgerald,  Ga.,  by 
Northern  immigrants  to  keep  the  Negroes  out  of  it,  but  in 
such  places  who  will  do  the  odd  jobs  and  perform  the 
necessary  rough  labor?  How  shall  houses  be  built,  drays 
be  driven  and  dirt  shoveled,  if  there  are  no  Negroes? 

Try  which  way  you  may,  there  seems  no  method  con- 
sonant with  the  interests  of  the  South  and  the  principles 
of  humanity  by  which  Negroes  can  be  set  apart  from 
the  white  people.  It  was  not  the  choice  of  their  ancestors 
to  change  their  horizon ;  nor  were  the  Africans  now  in  the 
United  States  consulted  as  to  their  neighbors;  but  they 
were  born  on  American  soil;  they  have  shared  in  the  toil 
of  conquering  the  continent ;  they  have  their  homes,  their 
interests,  and  their  traditions ;  they  have  never  known  any 
life  except  in  dependence  on  and  close  relations  with  the 
Whites.  However  happier  the  South  and  the  whole  coun- 
try might  be  were  there  no  race  question,  there  seems  no 
possibility  of  avoiding  it  by  taking  away  all  race  contact. 

A  method  of  supposed  relief  widely  applied,  frequently 
invoked,  and  strenuously  defended,  is  to  terrorize  the 
Negro.  And  the  North  is  not  free  from  that  spirit.  As 
Mr.  Dooley  philosophizes :  "  He'll  ayther  have  to  go  to  th' 
north  an'  be  a  subjick  race,  or  stay  in  th'  south  an'  be  an 
objick  lesson.  'Tis  a  har-rd  time  he'll  have,  anyhow.  .  .  . 
I'm  not  so  much  throubled  about  th'  naygur  whin  he  lives 
among  his  opprissors  as  I  am  whin  he  falls  into  th'  hands 
iv  his  liberators.  Whin  he's  in  th'  South  he  can  make  up 

358 


THE  WRONG  WAY  OUT 

his  mind  to  be  lynched  soon  or  late  an'  give  his  attintion 
to  his  other  pleasures  iv  composin'  rag-time  music  on  a 
banjo,  an'  wurrukin'  f  r  th'  man  that  used  to  own  him 
an'  now  on'y  owes  him  his  wages.  But  'tis  the  divvle's 
own  hardship  ...  to  be  pursooed  by  a  mob  iv  abolition- 
ists till  he's  dhriven  to  seek  police  protection."  Still  the 
Northern  police  do  give  protection  against  assaults  on  the 
Negro  which  Southern  police  sometimes  refuse.  Lawless- 
ness is  the  plague  of  the  South.  Attention  has  already 
been  called  to  the  negro  crime  against  person  and  life, 
the  shocking  frequency  of  white  crime,  the  weakness  and 
timidity  of  the  courts,  and  the  resort  to  lynching  as  an 
alleged  protest  against  lawlessness.  The  number  of  homi- 
cides and  mob  murders  is  not  so  serious  as  the  continual 
appeals  to  violence  by  editors  and  public  men  who  are 
accepted  as  leaders  by  a  large  minority  and  sometimes  a 
majority  of  the  white  people.  Thus  John  Temple  Graves 
calls  for  "  a  firm,  stern,  and  resolute  attitude  of  organiza- 
tion and  readiness  on  the  part  of  the  dominant  race.  .  .  . 
Is  this  black  man  from  savage  Africa  to  keep  on  perpetu- 
ally disturbing  the  sections  of  our  common  country?  Is 
this  running  sore  to  be  nursed  and  treated  and  anodyned 
and  salved  and  held  forever  to  our  breasts  ?  "  Southern 
newspapers  abound  in  fierce  and  exciting  headlines :  "  The 
Burly  Black  Brute  Foiled!"  "A  Ham  Colored  Nigger 
in  the  Hen  House ! "  "  The  Only  Place  for  You  is  Be- 
hind a  Mule,"  and  so  on — what  somebody  has  called  "  The 
wholesale  assassination  of  negro  character."  Senator  Till- 
man  in  a  public  lecture  has  said :  "  On  one  occasion  we 
killed  seven  niggers ;  I  don't  know  how  many  I  killed  per- 
sonally, but  I  shot  to  kill  and  I  know  I  got  my  share." 
And  in  another  speech,  in  November,  1907,  in  Chicago, 
the  same  man,  who  has  repeatedly  been  elected  to  the 

359 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

Senate  from  a  once  proud  state,  said :  "  No  matter  what 
the  people  in  the  North  may  say  or  do,  the  white  race  in 
the  South  will  never  be  dominated  by  the  Negro,  and  I 
want  to  tell  you  now  that  if  some  state  should  ever  make 
an  attempt  to  '  save  South  Carolina,'  we  will  show  them 
in  their  fanaticism  that  we  will  make  it  red  before  we 
make  it  black." 

Observe  that  this  ferocity  is  not  directed  against  the 
Negro  simply  because  he  does  ill,  but  equally  if  he  does 
well.  Thus  a  correspondent  in  Georgia  writes :  "  Let  me 
tell  you  one  thing, — every  time  you  people  of  the  North 
countenance  in  any  way,  shape  or  form  any  form  of  social 
equality,  you  lay  up  trouble,  not  for  yourselves,  or 
for  us  so  much,  but  for  the  negro.  Right  or  wrong  the 
Southern  people  will  never  tolerate  it,  and  will  go  through 
the  horrors  of  another  reconstruction,  before  they  will  per- 
mit it  to  be.  Before  we  will  submit  to  it,  we  will  Tcill 
every  negro  in  the  Southern  states.  This  is  not  idle  boast- 
ing or  fire-eating  threats,  but  the  cold,  hard  facts  stated  in 
all  calmness/'  Could  hate,  jealousy,  and  meanness  reach  a 
higher  pitch  than  in  the  following  declaration  of  Thomas 
Dixon,  Jr.,  sent  broadcast  through  the  country  in  the 
Saturday  Evening  Post  two  years  ago  ?  "  Does  any  sane 
man  believe  that  when  the  Negro  ceases  to  work  under 
the  direction  of  the  Southern  white  man,  this  '  arrogant,' 
*  rapacious,'  and  '  intolerant '  race  will  allow  the  Negro  to 
master  his  industrial  system,  take  the  bread  from  his 
mouth,  crowd  him  to  the  wall  and  place  a  mortgage  on 
his  house?  Competition  is  war — the  most  fierce  and  bru- 
tal of  all  its  forms.  Could  fatuity  reach  a  sublimer  height 
than  the  idea  that  the  white  man  will  stand  idly  by  and 
see  this  performance?  What  will  he  do  when  put  to  the 
test?  He  will  do  exactly  what  his  white  neighbor  in  the 

360 


THE  WRONG  WAY  OUT 

North  does  when  the  Negro  threatens  his  bread — kfll 
him !  "  Could  blind  race  hostility  go  farther  than  in  the 
Atlanta  Riots  of  1907,  for  which  not  one  murderer  has 
ever  been  subjected  to  any  punishment? 

These  violent  utterances  come  almost  wholly  from  the 
Superior  Race.  The  Negroes  have  their  grievances;  but 
any  intemperate  publication  toward  the  white  race  would 
almost  certainly  lead  to  a  lynching.  An  instance  has  ac- 
tually occurred  where  a  Negro  was  driven  out  of  a  com- 
munity, and  glad  to  escape  with  his  life,  because  he  had 
in  his  newspaper  said  with  regard  to  a  woman  of  his  own 
race  whose  character  had  been  assailed,  that  she  was  as 
virtuous  as  any  white  woman.  Doubtless  some  of  the 
cruel  and  incendiary  language  that  has  been  quoted  is  in- 
tended for  home  consumption ;  it  is  supposed  to  be  a  strik- 
ing way  of  saying  to  the  Negroes  that  they  ought  to  behave 
better;  and  alongside  every  one  of  these  vindictive  utter- 
ances could  be  placed  a  message  of  hope  and  encourage- 
ment from  Southern  white  men  to  the  blacks.  These  ex- 
pressions of  white  ferocity  in  condemnation  of  negro  fero- 
city are  overbalanced  by  such  strong  words  as  those  of 
Senator  Williams :  "  It  cannot  be  escaped  by  the  exter- 
mination of  either  race  by  the  other.  That  thought  is 
absolutely  horrible  to  a  good  man,  a  believer  in  the  divine 
philosophy  of  Jesus  Christ,  who  taught  mutual  helpfulness, 
and  not  mutual  hatred  to  mankind."  Nevertheless,  it  re- 
mains true  that  a  large  number  of  Southern  people  who  are 
in  places  of  influence  and  authority  advise  that  the  race 
problem  be  settled  by  terrorizing  the  Negro. 

The  commonest  form  of  terror  is  lynching,  a  deliber- 
ate attempt  to  keep  the  race  down  by  occasionally  killing 
Negroes,  sometimes  because  they  are  dreadful  criminals, 
frequently  because  they  are  bad,  or  loose-tongued,  or  in- 

301 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

fluential,  or  are  acquiring  property,  or  otherwise  irritate 
the  Whites.  A  saucy  speech  by  a  Negro  to  a  white  man  may 
be  followed  by  swift,  relentless,  and  tormenting  death.  In 
every  case  of  passionate  conflict  between  two  races  the 
higher  loses  most,  because  it  has  most  to  lose;  and  lynch 
law  as  a  remedy  for  the  lawlessness  of  the  blacks  has  the 
disadvantage  of  occasionally  exposing  innocent  white  men 
to  the  uncontrollable  passion  of  other  white  men,  of  filling 
the  mind  with  scenes  of  horror  and  cruelty,  of  lowering  the 
standard  of  the  whole  white  race. 

This  subject  is  inextricably  connected  with  the  crimes 
by  Negroes,  for  which  lynching  is  held  to  be  an  appropri- 
ate punishment.  The  statistics  collected  by  Mr.  Cutler, 
and  stated  in  a  previous  chapter,  show  in  the  twenty-two 
years  from  1882- to  1903  a  record  of  1,997  lynchings  in 
the  South ;  of  the  Negroes  lynched,  707  were  charged  with 
violence  to  women  and  783  with  murder.  These  figures 
absolutely  disprove  the  habitual  statements  in  the  South 
that  lynching  is  common  to  all  sections  of  the  Union ;  that 
it  is  almost  always  caused  by  rape;  and  that  rape  is  a 
crime  confined  to  Negroes.  The  details  of  some  of  these 
cases  would  show  that  the  mob  not  infrequently  gets  an 
innocent  person;  that  it  is  liable  to  be  carried  away  into 
the  most  horrible  excesses  of  burning  and  torture;  that  a 
lynching  is  really  a  kind  of  orgy  in  which  not  only  the 
criminal  class  among  the  Whites,  but  people  who  are  or- 
dinarily swayed  by  reason  simply  let  go  of  themselves  and 
indulge  the  primeval  brutishness  of  human  nature.  Said 
Confucius :  "  The  Master  said,  '  I  hate  the  manner  in 
which  purple  takes  away  the  luster  of  vermilion.  I  hate 
the  way  in  which  the  songs  of  Ch'ing  confound  the  music 
of  Gna.  I  hate  those  who  with  their  sharp  mouths  over- 
throw kingdoms  and  families.' " 

362 


THE   WBONG  WAY   OUT 

Professor  Smith,  of  Tulane  University,  is  spokesman 
for  thousands  of  respectable  and  educated  men  when  he 
says :  "  Atrocious  as  such  forms  of  rudimentary  justice 
undoubtedly  are,  and  severely  reprehensible,  to  be  con- 
demned always  and  without  any  reserve,  it  cannot  be  de- 
nied that  they  have  a  certain  rough  and  horrible  virtue. 
Great  is  the  insult  they  wreak  on  the  majesty  of  the  law 
and  brutalizing  must  be  their  effect  upon  human  nature, 
yet  they  do  strike  a  salutary  terror  into  hearts  which  the 
slow  and  uncertain  steps  of  the  courts  could  hardly  daunt. 
In  witness  stands  the  fact  that  lynch-lightning  seldom 
strikes  twice  in  the  same  district  or  community.  Such 
frightful  incidents  tend  to  repeat  themselves  at  wide  inter- 
vals, both  of  time  and  place." 

They  tend  to  repeat  themselves  immediately ;  it  is  'not 
an  accident  that  Mississippi,  in  a  large  part  of  which  the 
Negroes  are  renowned  for  their  freedom  from  the  crime 
so  much  reprehended,  nevertheless,  has  more  lynchings  than 
any  other  state ;  it  is  because  Mississippi  has  the  lynching 
habit.  Strange  that  in  a  community  like  the  South,  so 
intelligent,  so  proud  of  the  superiority  and  the  supremacy 
of  the  white  race,  the  deeds  of  fifty  abandoned  black  men 
each  year  should  throw  millions  of  Whites  into  a  frenzy  of 
excitement ;  and  that  for  the  crime  of  those  fifty,  ten  mil- 
lion innocent  people  are  held  responsible.  Lynching  is  no 
remedy  for  race  troubles,  and  never  has  been;  it  intensi- 
fies the  race  feeling  a  hundredfold ;  it  is  a  standing  indict- 
ment of  the  white  people  who  possess  all  the  machinery 
of  government,  yet  cannot  prevent  the  fury  of  their  own 
race.  "  Surely,"  says  President  Roosevelt,  "  no  patriot 
can  fail  to  see  the  fearful  brutalization  and  debasement 
which  the  indulgence  of  such  a  spirit  and  such  practices 
inevitably  portend.  .  .  .  The  nation,  like  the  individual, 
24  303 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

cannot  commit  a  crime  with  impunity.  If  we  are  guilty 
of  lawlessness  and  brutal  violence,  whether  our  guilt  con- 
sists in  active  participation  therein  or  in  mere  connivance 
and  encouragement,  we  shall  assuredly  suffer  later  on  be- 
cause of  what  we  have  done.  The  corner  stone  of  this 
republic,  as  of  all  free  governments,  is  respect  for  and 
obedience  to  the  law."  That  the  South  can  get  on  with- 
out lynchings  is  shown  by  the  gradual  diminution  in  the 
number  of  instances.  In  1901  there  were  135,  in  1906 
only  45,  and  in  this  good  result  the  protests  of  the  good 
people  in  the  South  have  been  aided  by  the  criticism  of 
the  North.  Murders  of  Whites  by  Negroes  are  probably 
just  as  frequent,  but  they  are  more  likely  to  go  to  the 
courts. 

Some  things  can  still  be  done  to  reduce  the  crime  of 
the  individual  without  increasing  the  crime  of  the  mob. 
John  Temple  Graves  has  suggested  for  the  Negro  that: 
"  Upon  conviction  of  Kis  crime  he  would  cross  a  '  Bridge 
of  Sighs '  and  disappear  into  a  prison  of  darkness  and  mys- 
tery, from  which  he  would  never  emerge,  and  in  which 
he  would  meet  a  fate  known  to  no  man  save  the  Govern- 
ment and  the  excutioners  of  the  law — that  the  very  dark- 
ness and  mystery  of  this  punishment  would  strike  more 
terror  to  the  soul  of  superstitious  criminals  than  all  the 
vengeance  of  modern  legal  retribution." 

A  kindred  suggestion  is  that  a  special  court  of  Whites 
shall  be  set  up  to  deal  with  certain  aggravated  crimes,  out- 
side of  the  technicalities  of  the  ordinary  criminal  law.  If 
the  Negroes  would  deliver  up  those  of  their  own  number 
whom  they  suppose  to  have  committed  such  crimes,  they 
would  relieve  themselves  of  the  odium  of  protecting  the 
worst  criminals.  The  Whites  are  right  in  insisting  on  a 
stronger  feeling  of  race  responsibility,  but  where  is  their 

364 


THE  WRONG  WAY  OUT 

own  sense  of  race  responsibility  when  the  Salisbury 
tynchers,  the  Atlanta  murderers  and  the  scoundrel  Turner, 
who  practically  kidnapped  and  then  tortured  to  death  a 
Negro  woman, are  protected  by  public  sentiment?  Extraor- 
dinary remedies  are  not  necessary  if  the  white  people  will 
make  their  own  courts  and  sheriffs  do  their  duty,  by  speedy 
trials,  followed  by  swift  and  orderly  punishment ;  and  most 
of  all  by  disgracing  and  driving  out  of  society  men  who 
take  upon  themselves  the  hangman's  office  without  the 
hangman's  plea  of  maintaining  the  majesty  of  law. 

Lynching  is  part  of  the  same  spirit  as  that  which  in- 
spires peonage,  the  meanest  of  all  crimes  in  the  calendar ; 
for  to  steal  a  poor  Negro's  labor  is  to  rob  a  cripple  of  his 
crutches ;  to  knock  down  the  child  for  his  penny ;  it  is  the 
fleecing  of  the  most  defenseless  by  the  most  powerful. 
One  of  the  remedies  for  the  ills  of  the  South  is  that  the 
white  people  shall  sternly  set  themselves  against  the  crime 
of  peonage,  which  exists  in  every  state  of  the  Lower  South, 
either  with  or  without  the  color  of  law;  and  which  secures 
the  most  expensive  labor  that  the  South  can  possibly  em- 
ploy, since  it  alarms  and  discourages  a  thousand  for  every 
man  whose  forced  labor  is  thus  stolen. 

The  terrible  thing  about  all  the  suggestions  of  violence 
and  hatred  as  a  remedy  is  that  they  react  upon  the  white 
race,  which  has  most  to  lose  in  property  and  in  character. 
"  There  are  certain  things,"  said  Governor  Vardaman,  of 
Mississippi,  in  a  public  proclamation,  "  that  must  be  done 
for  the  control  of  the  negro  which  need  not  be  done  for 
the  government  of  the  white  man.  In  spite  of  the  pro- 
visions of  the  federal  constitution  the  men  who  are  called 
upon  to  deal  with  this  great  problem  must  do  that  which 
is  necessary  to  be  done,  even  though  it  may  have  the  ap- 
pearance at  times  of  going  somewhat  without  the  law.  .  .  . 

3G5 


THE    SOUTHED    SOUTH 

If  the  people  of  the  respective  communities  of  this  state 
will  only  come  together  and  resolve  to  convert  every  negro 
into  a  laborer  and  self-supporter,  even  though  it  be  neces- 
sary to  make  him  a  laborer  upon  the  county's  or  the  state's 
property,  they  will  serve  their  communities  and  their  state 
well."  No  idea  is  more  futile  than  that  you  can  drive 
people  with  whips  into  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven ;  that  you 
can  teach  an  inferior  race  to  observe  laws  by  yourself 
breaking  them ;  that  you  can  put  one  half  the  community 
outside  the  law,  while  claiming  American  liberty  for  the 
other  half.  Though  the  negro  race  has  little  to  urge  in 
public,  it  feels  the  degradation  and  the  hurt.  Violence 
solves  no  problems ;  it  does  not  even  postpone  the  evil  day. 
The  race  problem  must  be  solved  by  applying  to  Negroes 
the  same  kind  of  law  and  justice  that  the  experience  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon  has  found  necessary  for  its  own  protec- 
tion. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

MATERIAL  AND  POLITICAL  REMEDIES 

THE  methods  of  dealing  with  the  race  question  dis- 
cussed in  the  last  chapter  all  go  back  to  the  idea 
that  the  Negro  can  be  improved  only  by  some  proc- 
ess distasteful  to  him.  Race  separation  he  dislikes,  expa- 
triation he  shudders  at,  and  violence  brings  on  him  more 
evils  than  it  removes,  to  say  nothing  of  the  effect  on  the 
Whites.  The  world  has  tried  many  experiments  of  civiliz- 
ing people  by  the  police,  and  they  are  all  failures,  from  the 
Russian  Empire  to  the  West  Side  of  New  York,  especially 
since  both  the  Cossacks  and  the  metropolitan  police  have 
faults  of  their  own.  In  the  South  and  in  Russia  alike  there 
is  doubtless  a  feeling  that  the  people  at  the  bottom  of  the 
scale  are  things  below  the  common  standard,  that  force  is 
necessary  because  they  will  not  listen  to  reason. 

None  of  the  forcible  remedies  meets  the  most  obvious 
difficulty  in  the  South — that  the  present  condition  of  the 
lower  race  is  not  a  foundation  for  great  wealth  and  high 
prosperity.  If  the  Negro  has  reached  his  pitch,  if  he  is  to 
remain  at  his  present  average  of  morals  and  industry  and 
productivity,  the  South  may  well  be  in  despair,  for  it  is 
far  below  that  of  the  low  Southern  White,  and  farther  be- 
low that  of  the  Northwestern  farmer.  The  condition  of 
the  black  is  a  menace  to  society — if  it  must  stay  at  the 
present  level. 

367 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

In  the  chapter  on  "Is  the  Negro  Rising?"  some  rea- 
sons are  given  for  believing  that  the  status  of  the  race  has 
much  improved  in  the  last  forty  years  and  is  still  gaining. 
Upon  this  critical  point  numbers  of  both  races  testify. 
Kelly  Miller  says  of  the  achievements  of  his  people: 
"Within  forty  years  of  only  partial  opportunity,  while 
playing  as  it  were  in  the  backyard  of  civilization,  the 
American  negro  has  cut  down  his  illiteracy  by  over  fifty 
per  cent ;  has  produced  a  professional  class  some  fifty  thou- 
sand strong,  including  ministers,  teachers,  doctors,  lawyers, 
editors,  authors,  architects,  engineers  and  all  higher  lines 
of  listed  pursuits  in  which  white  men  are  engaged;  some 
three  thousand  negroes  have  taken  collegiate  degrees,  over 
three  hundred  being  from  the  best  institutions  in  the  North 
and  West  established  for  the  most  favored  white  youth; 
.  .  .  negro  inventors  have  taken  out  some  four  hundred 
patents  as  a  contribution  to  the  mechanical  genius  of 
America;  there  are  scores  of  negroes  who,  for  conceded 
ability  and  achievements,  take  respectable  rank  in  the 
company  of  distinguished  Americans." 

This  opinion  is  not  confined  to  members  of  the  negro 
race;  even  so  cordial  an  enemy  of  the  Negro  as  John 
Temple  Graves  admits  that  "  The  leaders  of  no  race  in 
history  have  ever  shown  greater  wisdom,  good  temper  and 
conservative  discretion  than  distinguishes  the  two  or  three 
men  who  stand  at  the  head  of  the  negro  race  in  America 
to-day  " ;  and  elsewhere  he  declares  that  there  are  two  good 
Negroes  for  every  bad  Negro,  a  proportion  which  does  not 
obtain  in  every  race.  Thomas  Nelson  Page  is  of  opinion 
that,  "  Unquestionably,  a  certain  proportion  of  the  Negro 
race  has  risen  notably  since  the  era  of  emancipation,"  and 
John  Sharp  Williams  commits  himself  to  the  statement  that 
"  Fully  ninety  per  cent  of  the  negro  race  is  behaving  itself 

368 


MATERIAL   AND   POLITICAL   REMEDIES 

as  well  as  could  be  expected ;  it  is  at  work  in  the  fields,  on 
the  railroads,  and  in  the  sawmills,  and  does  not,  for  the 
most  part,  know  that  there  is  a  fifteenth  amendment."  A 
cloud  of  witnesses  confirm  the  belief  that  a  fourth  to  a 
fifth  of  all  the  Negroes  in  the  South  are  somewhat  im- 
proving and  slowly  saving.  Some  of  them  have  heark- 
ened to  the  advice  of  an  English  writer :  "  Try  to  realize 
two  things:  first,  that  you  are  living  in  a  commercial  re- 
public; a  country  whose  standard,  in  all  things,  is  mate- 
rial; second,  that  you  are  the  greatest  economic  power  in 
this  country." 

The  possibility  of  a  general  industrial  uplift  depends 
upon  several  factors  which  are  not  easy  to  fix.  It  is  a 
question  whether  the  lower  four  fifths  of  the  negro  race 
has  anything  like  the  potentiality  of  the  upper  fraction, 
for  it  is  made  up  mostly  of  plantation  Negroes,  who  have 
certainly  advanced  a  long  way  from  slavery  times,  are 
better  clothed,  better  fed,  better  housed,  better  treated, 
but  are  still  a  long  way  below  most  of  the  Whites  in  their 
own  section.  The  most  appalling  thing  about  the  negro 
problem  is,  this  mass  of  people  on  the  land  who  are  doing 
well  in  the  sense  that  they  work,  make  cotton,  yield 
profits,  help  to  make  the  community  prosperous,  but  who 
are  ignorant,  stupid,  and  have  no  horizon  outside  the  cot- 
ton field  and  the  cornfield.  In  spirit  they  still  hark  back 
to  Whittier's  plantation  song, 

De  yam  will  grow,  de  cotton  blow, 

We'll  hab  de  rice  an'  corn; 
O  nebber  you  fear  if  nebber  you  hear 

De  driver  blow  his  horn. 

Is  there  anything  stirring  in  the  minds  of  that  great, 
good-natured,  inert  and  unthinking  mass  which  will  bring 


them  up  where  the  reproach  now  heaped  upon  them  shall 
fade  away?  Still  more,  if  they  try  to  arise,  will  the 
Whites  permit  them  ?  That  is  no  idle  question,  for  rising 
means  that  some  of  them  will  seek  other  pursuits,  and 
the  white  people  have  already  given  notice  that  certain 
avenues  of  labor  are  closed  to  them.  Contrary  to  many 
assertions  confidently  made,  the  Negroes  are  not  as  a  race 
crowded  out  of  the  skilled  trades  in  the  South;  but  the 
trades  union  is  bound  to  appear  and  the  effort  will  be  to 
shut  negro  mechanics  out  of  the  unions  altogether,  as  has 
been  done  in  some  Northern  places.  The  Negro  as  he  rises 
to  higher  possibilities  may  find  those  possibilities  with- 
drawn. Listen  to  the  philosophy  of  Thomas  Dixon,  Jr.,  a 
Christian  minister :  "  If  the  Negro  is  made  master  of  the 
industries  of  the  South  he  will  become  the  master  of  the 
South.  Sooner  than  allow  him  to  take  the  bread  from 
their  mouths,  the  white  men  will  kill  him  here,  as  they 
do  North,  when  the  struggle  for  bread  becomes  as 
tragic.  .  .  .  Make  the  Negro  a  scientific  and  successful 
farmer,  and  let  him  plant  his  feet  deep  in  your  soil,  and 
it  will  mean  a  race  war.  .  .  .  The  Ethiopian  cannot 
change  his  skin,  or  the  leopard  his  spots.  Those  who 
think  it  possible  will  always  tell  you  that  the  place  to  work 
this  miracle  is  in  the  South.  Exactly.  If  a  man  really 
believes  in  equality,  let  him  prove  it  by  giving  his  daughter 
to  a  Negro  in  marriage.  That  is  the  test."  This  is  noth- 
ing more  nor  less  than  the  negro  preacher's  exhortation  to 
his  congregation :  "  My  dear  hearers,  dar  is  two  roads  a-ly- 
in'  straight  before  you,  and  a-branchin'  off  de  one  from  de 
odder  at  the  nex'  corners;  one  of  'em  leads  to  perdition, 
and  de  odder  to  everlastin'  damnation.  Oh,  my  friends, 
which  will  you  choose  ? "  If  the  Negro  will  not  rise, 
argues  Dixon,  he  gives  nothing  to  the  community,  away 

370 


MATERIAL   AND   POLITICAL   REMEDIES 

with  him !  If  he  does  rise,  he  may  take  work  that  other- 
wise some  white  man  might  do,  lynch  him ! 

The  real  argument  of  competition  works  just  the  other 
way.  The  inferior  Negro  is  not  likely  to  take  the  bread 
out  of  the  mouth  of  the  superior  white  man;  but,  when 
relieved  from  the  abnormal  conditions  of  slavery  and  of 
Reconstruction,  he  may  still  be  able  to  hold  his  own  in 
the  struggle  for  existence.  Emancipation  threw  upon  the 
Negro  the  responsibility  for  his  own  keeping.  The  most 
that  he  can  ask  is  a  fair  field  without  artificial  hindrances 
or  limitations;  and  in  such  a  field  a  race  on  the  average 
inferior  may  nevertheless  find  tasks  in  which  it  excels, 
and  may  maintain  its  race  life  unimpaired.  Kelly  Miller 
says :  "  You  were  born  with  a  silver  spoon  in  your  mouth, 
I  was  born  with  an  iron  hoe  in  my  hand  " ;  and  the  world 
needs  the  hoe  hand  just  as  much  as  the  silversmith. 

It  would  appear  that  for  the  uplift  of  the  Negro  some- 
thing is  needed  on  the  white  side:  remembrance  of  the 
foundations  of  American  liberty,  of  the  workings  of  Chris- 
tianity, of  the  economic  truth  that  you  are  not  made  poor 
because  your  neighbor  gets  on  in  the  world.  The  curse  of 
the  South  is  that  its  people  do  not  more  genuinely  realize 
that  the  more  active,  industrious,  and  thrifty  a  people  be- 
come, the  more  their  neighbors  receive  out  of  the  enlarged 
contribution  to  the  community.  If  the  Negroes  were  all 
as  intelligent  as  Roscoe  Conkling  Bruce,  as  forehanded  as 
Benson  of  Kowaliga,  as  lyric  as  Paul  Dunbar,  the  Whites 
in  the  South  might  get  rich  out  of  the  trade  of  the  Negro, 
and  some  of  them  see  it  so.  For  instance,  President  Win- 
ston, of  the  Agricultural  College  of  North  Carolina : 
"  Greater  industrial  efficiency  would  prove  an  everlasting 
bond  between  the  races  in  the  South.  It  is  the  real  koy 
to  the  problem.  Let  the  Negro  make  himself  indispensable 

371 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

as  a  workman,  and  he  may  rely  upon  the  friendship  and 
affection  of  the  whites.  .  .  .  Public  sentiment  in  the  South 
still  welcomes  the  Negro  to  every  field  of  labor  that  he  is 
capable  of  performing.  The  whole  field  of  industry  is 
open  to  him.  The  Southern  whites  are  not  troubled  by 
his  efficiency  but  by  his  inefficiency."  Meantime  the  really 
industrious  Negroes,  of  whom  there  are  a  couple  of  mil- 
lion or  more,  follow  the  advice  of  Paul  Dunbar : 

I've  a  humble  little  motto 

That  is  homely,  though  it's  true, — 

Keep  a-pluggin'  away. 

It's  a  thing  when  I've  an  object 
That  I  always  try  to  do, — 

Keep  a-pluggin'  away. 

When  you've  rising  storms  to  quell, 

When  opposing  waters  swell, 

It  will  never  fail  to  tell, — 
Keep  a-pluggin'  away. 

The  self-interest  of  the  planter  in  the  efficiency  of  his 
labor  does  not  necessarily  lead  him  to  see  the  highest 
interests  either  of  the  negro  race  or  of  the  South,  under 
the  present  industrial  system,  which  makes  a  plantation  a 
workshop  rather  than  a  farm.  The  ownership  of  rich  cot- 
ton lands  only  means  wealth  if  you  can  find  negro  laborers 
and  keep  them  at  work.  One  of  the  most  powerful  up- 
lifting agencies  in  all  agricultural  countries  is  the  desire  to 
own  land,  and  one  of  the  most  frequent  texts  of  Booker 
Washington  is  that  now  is  the  time  for  the  Negro  to  ac- 
quire land,  for  it  will  never  again  be  so  cheap ;  but  where 
is  the  land  to  be  found  ?  Although  ownership  has  almost 
completely  changed  since  the  Civil  War,  good  lands  are  ag- 
gregating more  and  more  into  large  tracts.  The  white  far- 

372 


MATERIAL    AND    POLITICAL    REMEDIES 

mer  finds  it  difficult  to  hold  his  own  against  the  capitalist 
and  the  syndicate,  and  even  the  thrifty  black  is  beset  by 
special  difficulties. 

In  the  first  place,  the  rural  Negro  has,  unless  by  his 
saving  from  sawmill  and  turpentine  work,  little  oppor- 
tunity to  make  money  with  which  to  buy  a  farm,  except 
from  the  farm  itself :  hence  he  buys  on  time,  pays  a  heavy 
interest  charge,  and  is  at  every  disadvantage.  In  the  sec- 
ond place,  few  planters  are  willing  to  break  up  their  land 
into  small  tracts ;  to  do  so  takes  away  their  livelihood,  their 
only  opportunity  of  making  available  their  knowledge  of 
cotton  planting  and  of  dealing  with  cotton  hands.  Some 
of  them  are  absolutely  opposed  to  letting  the  Negroes  have 
land.  Mr.  Bell,  of  Alabama,  one  of  the  largest  land- 
owners in  the  South,  is  credited  with  saying  that  he  "  has 
no  use  for  a  Nigger  that  pays  out/'  That  is  to  say,  he 
prefer  his  hands  to  be  unprogressive  and  in  debt.  Per- 
haps the  South  fails  to  realize  that  the  wealth  of  the  West- 
ern, Middle,  and  New  England  states  comes  from  encour- 
aging people  to  do  the  best  they  know  how.  The  more  in- 
dustrious the  people  are,  the  more  business  there  is  of  every 
kind  and  for  everybody.  The  South  would  be  happier  and 
more  prosperous  if  it  could  accept  the  Western  system  of 
moderate-sized  detached  farms,  on  each  of  which  there  is 
an  intelligent  owner  or  tenant. 

The  large  number  of  negro  landowners  (though  many 
of  them  perhaps  are  mortgaged)  and  the  evident  prosper- 
ity of  those  communities  in  which  the  greatest  number  of 
them  hold  their  land,  seems  to  show  that  landowning  is 
a  motive  that  ought  to  be  strongly  set  before  them.  The 
old  notion  of  Reconstruction  times  that  the  federal  gov- 
ernment ought  to  furnish  "  forty  acres  and  a  mule  "  was 
not  so  far  wrong;  it  would  have  been  perfectly  possible 

373 


THE    SOUTHEKN   SOUTH 

for  the  nation  to  acquire  land  in  large  tracts,  to  subdivide 
it,  and  give  or  sell  it  at  nominal  rates,  so  as  to  offer  every 
thrifty  Negro  the  chance  of  proprietorship;  but  that  op- 
portunity, if  it  ever  existed,  has  long  gone  by,  and  the 
Kegro  must  depend  upon  himself  if  he  wishes  to  buy  land. 

The  present  system  is  not  only  industrial;  it  tends  to 
make  a  peasant  out  of  the  Negro,  and  peasant  is  a  term  of 
reproach  in  the  United  States,  though  in  France,  Germany, 
and  Italy  there  are  rich  peasants  as  well  as  poor  ones, 
peasants  who  employ  labor  as  well  as  those  who  have  noth- 
ing but  their  hands.  The  American  objection  to  a  peasant 
system  is  its  fixity ;  the  peasant  is  an  hereditary  laborer  on 
the  land,  usually  the  land  of  another ;  he  leaves  it  to  other 
people  to  carry  on  the  state,  to  elevate  the  community. 
Nevertheless,  it  is  simply  the  truth  that  under  the  present 
system  of  tenancy  employment  and  day  wages,  nearly  half 
of  the  negro  race  in  the  South  is  in  effect  a  peasantry. 
Perhaps  that  is  their  fate.  Perhaps  the  Alabama  lawyer's 
doctrine,  so  comfortable  for  the  white  man,  is  to  prevail : 
"  It's  a  question  who  will  do  the  dirty  work.  In  this  coun- 
try the  white  man  won't:  the  Negro  must.  There's  got 
to  be  a  mudsill  somewhere.  If  you  educate  the  Negroes 
they  won't  stay  where  they  belong;  and  you  must  consider 
them  as  a  race,  because  if  you  let  a  few  rise  it  makes  the 
others  discontented." 

The  question  of  who  is  to  do  the  crude,  disagreeable 
and  dirty  work,  has  solved  itself  in  the  North  which  has 
had  one  stratum  after  another  of  immigrants  who  were 
willing  to  take  it,  each  shoving  his  predecessor  higher  up 
in  the  scale  of  employment;  but  no  foreigners  will  come 
into  the  South  in  order  to  relieve  the  Negro  of  hewing  of 
wood  and  drawing  of  water.  It  looks  as  though  the  ma- 
jority of  the  race  would  be  compelled  to  accept  some  con- 

374 


MATERIAL   AND   POLITICAL   REMEDIES 

dition  on  the  land,  without  a  share  in  the  government  and 
without  much  prospect  of  getting  into  other  kinds  of  life. 
The  prospect  is  discouraging  in  itself,  and  it  readily  shades 
into  restraint,  subjection,  and  peonage — the  worst  of  rem- 
edies for  a  race  low  in  origin,  which  has  just  emerged  from 
a  debasing  servitude,  and  which  needs  all  the  stimulus  of 
ambition  and  opportunity. 

The  South  has  proved  its  capacity  for  organizing  and 
directing  ignorant  labor,  but  a  peasant  system  has  more 
dangers  for  the  upper  than  the  lower  class.  The  gentle- 
men of  eighteenth-century  France,  with  all  their  high 
breeding,  did  not  understand  the  people  under  them  and 
were  hated  of  their  peasants;  the  Pashas  of  Egypt  were 
degraded  by  their  mastery  over  thousands  of  fellahin;  the 
Russian  boyars  have  so  alienated  the  peasants  that  they 
have  almost  rent  the  empire  in  twain.  To  accept  a  peas- 
ant system  would  be  a  confession  that  the  South  must  re- 
main in  the  lower  stage  of  economic  progress  which  goes 
with  such  a  system.  The  duty  and  the  privilege  of  the 
South  is  still  to  seek  the  way  of  enlightment ;  to  make  the 
Negro  a  better  laborer  instead  of  crystallizing  him  into  a 
race  of  dependents. 

Material  progress  is  necessary  for  the  Negro  and  equally 
for  the  Poor  White,  not  simply  that  he  may  be  better  clad 
and  have  better  health,  but  because  it  brings  with  it  other 
influences  which  go  to  elevate  mankind.  You  cannot  make 
good  citizens  and  virtuous  people  out  of  a  dirty,  ill-fed 
family  in  a  one-room  house ;  the  remedy  of  intellectual  and 
moral  uplift  is  as  important  as  the  material  side.  Thrift 
works  both  ways:  the  man  who  buys  good  clothes  for  his 
children  wants  to  send  them  to  Sunday  school;  the  poor 
children  in  Sunday  school  beg  their  fathers  to  give  them 
good  clothes.  Such  intellectual  and  moral  agencies  are 

375 


THE    SOUTHERN   SOUTH 

at  work,  though  here  again  some  white  leaders  object  to 
them.  For  instance,  John  Temple  Graves  asks :  "  Will  the 
negro,  with  his  increasing  education  and  his  surely  and 
steadily  advancing  worth  and  merit,  be  content  to  accept, 
in  peace  and  humility,  anything  less  than  his  full  and 
equal  share  in  the  government  of  which  he  is  a  part  ?  " 
Here  is  one  of  the  stumbling  blocks  in  the  way  of  the 
progress  of  the  race. 

For  thrift  and  saving  habits  the  South  has  always 
lacked  one  of  the  approved  aids ;  it  has  few  savings  banks, 
few  ordinary  banks  which  attract  the  deposits  of  Negroes, 
and  few  steady  investments  in  small  denominations.  For 
this  reason  the  proposed  Postal  Savings  Banks  would  be 
a  boon  to  the  South,  and  would  help  toward  the  purchase 
of  land  and  other  property.  The  Negroes'  own  fraternal 
orders  and  stock  companies  furnish  some  opportunities  for 
savings.  Eegulation  of  drinking  and  gambling  places 
will  also  make  saving  likelier  among  the  laborers.  That 
difficulties  and  conflicts  of  interest  would  rise  between 
Whites  and  Negroes  was  foreseen  at  the  time  of  Recon- 
struction,  and  it  was  honestly  supposed  by  the  thinking 
people  of  the  North  that  the  ballot  would  at  the  same  time 
protect  the  black  against  white  aggression,  and  would  edu- 
cate him  into  the  sense  of  such  responsibility  that  there 
would  not  be  negro  aggression.  Giving  the  negro  suf- 
frage, however,  while  at  the  same  time  through  the  Re- 
construction state  constitutions  disfranchising  his  former 
master,  brought  about  a  condition  of  unstable  equilibrium, 
and  the  strongest,  best  organized,  and  most  determined 
race  of  course  prevailed.  For  some  years  after  the  restora- 
tion of  white  supremacy  in  the  Southern  states,  colored 
men  were  still  allowed  to  vote  in  districts  like  the  Sea  Is- 
lands of  South  Carolina,  and  the  Delta  of  Mississippi, 

376 


MATERIAL   AND    POLITICAL   REMEDIES 

where  they  were  predominant,  but  since  1885  there  has 
not  been  any  genuine  negro  suffrage  in  any  state  of  the 
South,  in  the  sense  that  Negroes  were  assured  that  their 
votes  could  be  cast  and  would  be  counted  even  if  they 
made  a  difference  in  the  result.  The  last  remnant  of  a 
successful  combination  of  negro  voters  with  a  minority  of 
the  Whites  was  in  the  North  Carolina  election  of  1896. 

By  the  series  of  constitutional  amendments  begun  in 
1890,  and  since  spread  through  the  South,  a  property  or 
intelligence  qualification  has  practically  been  established  for 
Negroes  while  not  applying  to  poor  or  illiterate  Whites.  In 
the  Northern  states  race  difficulties,  so  fac  as  they  take  form 
in  politics,  are  settled  by  the  usual  course  of  elections; 
in  the  South  it  is  the  unalterable  intention  of  the  Whites 
that  the  Negroes  shall  not  participate  in  choosing  officials 
or  in  making  laws  either  for  white  men  or  for  themselves. 

Furthermore,  the  South  is  bitterly  opposed  to  the  hold- 
ing of  offices  by  Negroes  except  the  small  local  appoint- 
ments. Though  Negroes  are  one  third  in  number  in  the 
South,  and  more  than  one  half  the  population  in  two 
states,  they  have  not  a  single  state  administrative  official, 
member  of  legislature,  or  judge.  The  opposition  to  negro 
office  holding  extends  to  federal  appointments,  although  a 
considerable  number  of  places,  some  of  them  important, 
are  still  held  by  Negroes.  They  obtain  appointments  as 
railway  mail  clerks  and  letter  carriers  by  competitive  ex- 
amination, and  a  few  of  them  are  selected  for  collector- 
ships  of  internal  revenue  and  of  customs,  on  the  basis 
that  the  Negroes  are  part  of  the  community  and  entitled  to 
some  recognition.  To  exclude  them  altogether  from  the 
public  service,  as  they  have  been  almost  excluded  from  the 
suffrage,  may  somewhat  diminish  race  friction,  but  it  is 
a  mark  of  inferiority  which  the  whole  negro  race  resents. 

377 


CHAPTER   XXVII 

MORAL  REMEDIES 

THE  regeneration  of  a  race,  as  of  mankind,  is  some- 
thing that  must  proceed  from  within  and  work  out- 
ward. Hence  the  most  obvious  remedy  for  race 
troubles  is  that  both  races  should  come  up  to  a  higher  plane 
of  living.  What  has  been  the  progress  of  the  Negro  in  that 
direction ;  what  is  the  likelihood  of  further  advance  ?  The 
chance  of  the  blacks  is  less  than  it  would  be  if  the  white 
race  had  a  larger  part  in  it.  The  Negro  is  insensibly  af- 
fected by  the  spirit  of  the  community  in  which  he  lives. 
He  knows  that  though  ruffians  threaten  him  with  revolvers 
or  with  malignant  looks  that  have  a  longer  range,  there 
are  also  broad-minded  and  large-hearted  white  men  who 
bid  him  rise ;  but  he  is  almost  cut  off  from  the  machinery 
of  civilization  set  in  motion  by  his  white  neighbor;  he 
cannot  use  or  draw  books  from  the  public  library ;  he  prac- 
tically cannot  attend  any  churches,  lectures,  or  concerts, 
except  those  provided  directly  for  him.  On  the  plantation 
he  hardly  sees  a  white  face,  except  those  of  the  managers 
and  their  families.  He  has  little  opportunity  to  talk  with 
white  men ;  none  for  that  interchange  of  thought  which  is 
so  much  promoted  by  sitting  round  the  same  table.  He 
can  attend  no  colleges  or  schools  with  white  students.  In 
the  common  schools  and  in  many  institutions  above,  he 
meets  only  negro  teachers.  He  is  far  more  cut  off  from 

378 


MORAL   REMEDIES 

the  personal  touch  and  influence  of  white  men  and  women 
of  high  quality  than  he  was  in  slavery  times. 

Within  his  own  race  he  experiences  the  influences  of 
some  notable  minds,  and,  with  few  exceptions,  the  men 
recognized  by  the  Negroes  as  their  chief  leaders  counsel 
moderation  and  preach  uplift.  Many  of  the  lesser  leaders 
are  deficient  in  character,  and  a  large  fraction  of  the  min- 
isters of  the  gospel  do  not,  by  their  lives  or  conversation, 
enforce  the  lessons  which  they  teach  from  the  pulpit ;  they 
also  have  not  the  advantage  of  training  by  white  teachers. 
In  the  process  of  separation  of  races,  the  negro  mind  has 
gone  far  toward  losing  touch  with  the  white  mind.  The 
best  friends  of  the  race  are  grieved  and  humiliated  from 
time  to  time  to  find  that  they  had  expected  something 
which  the  Negroes  did  not  recognize  as  due  from  them — 
service,  loyalty,  gratitude.  Thousands  of  people  believe 
that  the  Negro  makes  it  the  object  of  his  life  ,to  cheat  a 
white  man.  Thousands  of  Negroes  feel  that  they  are  not 
bound  by  promises  or  contracts  made  to  their  own  hurt. 

Since  the  white  race  is  not  in  such  friendly  relations 
with  the  Negro  as  to  impress  upon  him  the  causes  of  white 
superiority,  some  Southern  writers  would  like  to  see  a 
sort  of  benevolent  state  socialism  applied  to  the  Negro, 
such  as  laws  under  which  the  coming  and  going  of  the 
blacks  should  be  regulated,  their  implements  secured,  and 
labor  distributed  where  it  was  needed.  Like  many  other 
suggestions,  this  remedy  would  cure  the  Negro's  shiftless- 
ness  by  taking  away  his  self-control,  and  would  apply  to 
the  lazy  black  man  a  regime  which  would  be  abhorrent  if 
employed  upon  the  lazy  white  man. 

Where  the  Whites  appreciate  and  aid  the  Negroes,  the 
color  line  cuts  them  off  from  making  the  distinctions 
which  are  the  rewards  of  the  energetic  and  successful  in 
25  379 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

other  communities.  The  negro  poet,  the  essayist,  and  the 
educator  have  no  fellowship  with  those  neighbors  who 
could  appreciate  their  genius.  So  far  as  the  South  can 
prevent  it,  the  most  energetic  and  successful  negro  busi- 
ness man  can  hope  for  no  public  office.  The  machinery  for 
uplifting  the  Negro  through  white  influence  is  no  longer 
in  operation.  The  inferior  race  is  thrown  back  upon 
members  of  the  inferior  race  for  its  moral  stimulus;  and 
then  is  reproached  because  it  does  not  form  higher  ideals 
and  advance  more  rapidly.  The  successful  Negro  exercis- 
ing a  good  influence  among  his  fellows  cannot  be  admitted 
to  the  white  man's  club,  cannot  be  made  the  intimate  of 
men  of  kindred  aims.  As  Senator  Williams  says :  "  When 
we  find  a  good  negro  we  must  encourage  him  to  stay  good 
and  to  grow  better.  We  are  doing  too  little  of  that.  The 
old  adage,  '  Give  a  dog  a  bad  name  and  you  have  made 
a  bad  dog/  is  a  good  one.  Indiscriminate  cursing  of  the 
whole  negro  race,  good  and  bad  alike  included,  is  an  ex- 
emplification of  the  adage.  I  have  frequently  thought  how 
hard  it  was  for  a  good  negro,  especially  during  campaign 
times,  to  stay  good  or  to  grow  better  when  he  could  not 
come  within  sound  of  a  white  speaker's  voice  without  hear- 
ing his  whole  race  indiscriminately  reviled  without  mention 
of  him  as  an  exception,  even  in  the  neighborhood  where 
he  was  known  to  be  one." 

One  of  the  strongest  civilizing  forces  both  North  and 
South  has  been  the  Church,  through  which  has  been  spread 
abroad  not  only  the  incitements  to  life  on  a  high  plane, 
but  the  intellectual  stimulus  of  the  preacher's  voice,  of 
the  association  of  keen  men,  of  Bible  study.  The  Negro 
has  the  outward  sign  of  this  influence,  the  force  of  which 
is  recognized  by  all  candid  people ;  but  his  clergy  are  not, 
as  a  class,  moral  leaders,  and  here,  as  in  so  many  other 

380 


MORAL   REMEDIES 

directions,  he  is  deprived  of  the  leadership  of  the  Whites. 
For  similar  populations  in  the  North  there  is  an  apparatus 
of  missions,  and  the  schools  and  colleges  planted  by  North- 
erners in  the  South  are  almost  all  substantially  missionary 
movements ;  but  the  South  dislikes  them  and  makes  almost 
no  effort  to  rival  them.  The  Christian  church,  which  is 
the  bearer  of  civilization  to  Africa,  China,  the  American 
Indians,  leaves  the  Negroes  in  great  part  to  christianize 
themselves  if  they  can. 

The  white  man  has  another  opportunity  of  helping  up- 
ward his  dark  neighbor  through  his  control  of  legislatures 
and  courts.  Garner  would  solve  the  problem — "not  by 
denying  him  the  advantages  of  education,  but  by  curbing 
his  criminal  instincts  through  a  more  rigid  enforcement 
of  the  law.  The  laws  against  carrying  concealed  weapons, 
against  gambling,  and  against  vagrancy  should,  if  neces- 
sary, be  increased  in  severity  and  enforced  with  a  vigilance 
and  certainty  which  will  root  out  gambling,  force  the  idle 
vagrant  to  work,  and  send  the  pistol  carrier  to  prison. 
The  abolition  of  the  saloon  and  the  extirpation  of  the 
'blind  tiger'  and  the  cocaine  dive  would  remove  the 
most  potent  external  causes  of  negro  criminality.  .  .  . 
Conditions  could  be  materially  improved  by  the  establish- 
ment of  a  more  adequate  police  surveillance  and  control 
and  the  introduction  of  a  more  effective  police  protection, 
for  it  is  a  well-known  fact  that  in  most  Southern  com- 
munities this  protection  is  notoriously  insufficient.  It  is 
also  well  worth  considering  whether  some  reasonable  and 
effective  measures  might  not  be  taken  to  prevent  the  move- 
ment of  the  negroes  to  the  towns  and  cities  and  their 
segregation  in  particular  localities."  Says  an  Alabamian 
lawyer:  "A  different  and  milder  set  of  laws  ought  to  be 
enacted  for  him  than  for  the  white  man.  .  .  .  His  best 

381 


THE    SOUTHERN   SOUTH 

friends  in  the  South  are  among  our  'gentlemen.'  The  low 
White  has  no  use  for  him.  He  hates  the  Negro  and  the 
Negro  hates  him."  From  the  federal  government,  as  has 
been  shown  above,  no  effective  legislation  can  be  expected; 
but  may  not  something  be  done  by  special  state  action? 
Many  observers  are  alive  to  the  possibility  of  removing 
temptations  which  are  thought  to  be  specially  alluring  to 
the  Negro.  The  ill-disposed  country  black  is  a  rover,  a 
night-hawk,  and  has  his  own  kinds  of  good  times,  including 
a  supply  of  whisky;  the  bad  town  Negro  finds  his  pleasures 
right  at  hand,  and  is  frequently  abetted  in  them  by  the 
white  man.  To  be  sure,  low  drinking  houses,  gambling 
houses  and  worse  places,  flourish  among  all  races  in  New 
York,  and  are  no  more  likely  to  be  exterminated  in  New 
Orleans  than  in  the  Northern  city  for  such  considerations. 
John  Sharp  Williams  would  resort  to  "some  sort  of 
common-sense  remedies  of  the  negro  question  upon  the 
criminal  side,  principally  in  the  nature  of  preventives.  In 
the  first  place,  they  suggest  the  rigid  enforcement  of  va- 
grant laws  by  new  laws  whenever,  in  justice  and  right,  they 
need  strengthening.  In  the  second  place,  they  suggest  a 
closing  of  all  low  dives  and  brothels  where  the  vagrant, 
tramp,  and  idle  negroes  consort  and  where  their  imagina- 
tions— they  being  peculiarly  a  race  of  imagination  and 
emotion — are  inflamed  by  whisky,  cocaine,  and  lewd  pic- 
tures. It  must  be  remembered  that  that  which  would  not 
inflame  the  imagination  of  a  white  man  will  have  that 
effect  upon  the  tropical,  emotional  nature  of  the  darky. 
.  .  .  We  ought,  like  Canada  and  Cape  Colony,  to  have 
mounted  rural  police  or  constabulary,  whose  duty  it  would 
be  to  patrol  the  country  districts  day  and  night."  The 
cry  in  the  Southern  newspapers  against  negro  dives  gener- 
ally ignores  the  fact  that  many  of  them  are  carried  on  by 

382 


white  people,  and  others  are  partially  supported  by  white 
custom.  At  the  bottom  of  humanity  race  distinctions  dis- 
appear, and  you  could  find,  if  you  searched  for  it,  in  many 
Southern  towns,  beneath  the  lowest  negro  deep  a  lower 
white  deep.  The  difficulty  with  Southern  legislation  is 
that  it  is  more  hostile  to  negro  dives  than  to  white  dives. 

A  more  promising  legislative  remedy  is  an  efficient  va- 
grant law,  by  which  the  hopelessly  idle,  the  sponges  on  the 
industry  of  their  race,  should  receive  the  dread  punishment 
of  work.  Northern  states  which  are  unable  to  find  statutes 
and  magistrates  strict  enough  to  put  an  end  to  the  in- 
tolerable white  tramp  nuisance,  have  little  cause  to  criticise 
the  Southern  loafers,  of  whom  the  Whites  are  found  in 
quite  as  large  a  proportion  as  the  Negroes.  Several  states 
already  have  vagrant  laws,  but  they  are  applied  chiefly  to 
Negroes,  often  very  inequitably,  and  play  into  the  iniqui- 
tous system  by  which  sheriffs  make  money  in  proportion 
to  the  number  of  prisoners  that  they  arrest  and  keep  in 
jail.  The  Birmingham  Age  Herald  says  that  to  abolish 
imprisonment  for  nonpayment  of  criminal  costs  is  "  as 
much  out  of  our  reach  as  is  a  flight  to  Mars.  .  .  .  We 
must  build  jails  to  suit  the  operations  of  the  collectors  of 
fees.  There  is  no  help  for  it." 

Suggestions  that  there  be  a  kind  of  negro  court  for  the 
less  serious  negro  crimes,  have  been  made  by  Thomas  Nel- 
son Page  and  others;  and  Negroes  could  probably  admin- 
ister as  good  local  justice  as  some  of  their  dominant  race. 
In  the  island  of  St.  Helena,  for  instance,  where  seven 
thousand  people  for  a  long  time  had  no  local  court,  a 
white  magistrate  was  sent  over  who  sat  day  after  day 
drunk  on  the  bench,  finally  shot  a  man  (the  second  homi- 
cide on  that  island  in  forty  years),  and  was  put  on  his  trial, 
but  still  held  his  judicial  office.  Perhaps  a  special  negro 

383 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

court  for  petty  crimes  would  increase  the  sense  of  respon- 
sibility; but  it  collides  with  the  present  system  of  selling 
petty  criminals  to  the  planters. 

Something  could  be  done  by  an  efficient  system  of 
rural  police  such  as  is  needed  all  over  the  country,  North 
and  South.  In  Georgia  and  South  Carolina  bills  have 
lately  been  pending  for  a  state  mounted  police  which 
would  be  a  sort  of  revival  of  the  volunteer  patrols  of  slav- 
ery times.  The  suggestion  is  fought  hard,  however,  on  the 
ground  that  white  men  might  be  obliged  to  give  an  ac- 
count of  themselves  as  well  as  Negroes. 

The  only  thoroughgoing  legislative  measure  which 
seems  likely  to  help  the  Negro  is  prohibition,  which'  is  now 
sweeping  through  the  Lower  South.  It  is  a  region  which 
suffers  from  hard  drinking,  and  there  has  long  been  a 
strong  sentiment  against  the  traffic;  but  the  tumultuous 
success  of  prohibition  laws  in  communities  like  Alabama 
and  Mississippi  is  due  in  great  part  to  the  conviction  of 
employers  of  labor  in  cotton  mills,  in  ironworks,  in  the 
timber  industry,  and  on  the  land,  that  they  are  losing 
money  because  their  laborers  are  made  irregular  by  drunk- 
enness. That  objection  applies  as  much  to  the  selling  of 
liquor  to  Whites  as  to  Negroes;  but  the  drinking  white 
men  have  an  influence  over  prosecuting  officers  that  the 
Negroes  cannot  command;  and  it  looks  as  though  the  re- 
sult would  be  a  kind  of  prohibition  which  shuts  off  the 
stream  from  the  dusky  man's  throat  while  leaving  it  run- 
ning for  the  white  man.  If  the  South  succeeds  in  keeping 
liquor  away  from  the  Negro  in  the  Southern  cities,  it  will 
show  more  determination  than  exists  in  any  Northern 
center  of  population. 

In  general,  legislation  is  not  a  remedy  for  the  race 
question,  because  breaches  of  the  law  come  from  both  sides ; 

384 


MOKAL   KEMEDIES 

and  nobody  is  skillful  enough  to  draft  a  bill  which  will,  if 
righteously  applied,  apply  only  to  criminal  and  dissolute 
Negroes.  The  cutting  down  of  drinking  shops,  the  arrest 
of  the  drones,  a  rural  police,  enforcement  of  the  liquor 
laws,  will  help  in  the  South  because  it  will  bring  about  a 
feeling  of  responsibility  in  both  races — but  race  hostility 
is  not  caused  by  laws,  is  not  curable  by  laws,  and  relies 
upon  defying  laws. 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  failure  of  the  Whites  to  ex- 
ercise an  influence  over  the  Negroes  is  through  the  negro 
schools.  They  are,  to  be  sure,  carried  on  under  laws  made 
by  white  men,  administered  by  state  and  county  white 
officials,  but  there  the  relation  ends.  Even  from  the  point 
of  view  of  an  unsympathetic  superior  race,  the  schools  are 
badly  supervised;  and  when  it  comes  to  the  teachers,  the 
lower  race  is  thrown  back  upon  teachers  of  the  lower  race. 
In  the  North  the  raw  children  from  the  alien  families  are 
Americanized  by  their  fellows  in  the  public  schools,  un- 
der the  influence  of  teachers  taken  from  the  class  of  the 
population  which  has  most  opportunity  for  training. 
Not  so  in  the  South,  where  the  blind  are  expected  to 
lead  the  blind,  where  negro  teachers  trained  by  Negroes 
are  expected  to  inculcate  the  principles  of  white  civili- 
zation. 

The  refusal  of  the  South  to  permit  white  people,  and 
especially  white  women,  to  teach  the  Negroes,  is  a  plant 
of  recent  growth.  In  slavery  times  the  white  mistresses 
and  their  daughters  habitually  taught  the  household 
servants  their  duties  and  set  before  them  a  standard  of 
morals.  Beyond  that,  they  were  often  proud  of  teaching 
capable  slaves  to  read  and  write.  On  every  theory  of  the 
relation  of  the  races  this  transmittal  of  civilization  was 
not  only  allowable,  but  a  sacred  duty.  Nowadays  the  mis- 

385 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

tresses  have  the  smallest  control  over  or  influence  upon 
their  domestic  servants;  and,  with  few  exceptions,  the 
South  absolutely  refuses  to  improve  the  low  estate  of  the 
Negroes  by  permitting  the  white  young  people  to  teach 
them. 

The  arguments  against  putting  white  teachers  into 
negro  schools  are  altogether  weak.  The  first  is  that  it 
is  unsafe  for  white  women,  but  the  Northern  women  who 
have  been  for  years  among  Negroes  as  teachers  have  no 
fear  nor  cause  for  fear;  and  the  influence  of  a  pure  and 
refined  white  woman  would  tend  to  diminish  some  of  the 
worst  crimes  of  the  black  race.  It  is  urged,  however,  that 
even  men  could  not  teach  Negroes,  first,  because  the 
Negroes  would  not  trust  their  girls  to  them ;  secondly,  be- 
cause it  would  cut  off  the  field  or  negro  employment; 
thirdly,  because  a  white  man  does  not  wish  to  teach 
Negroes ;  and,  finally,  because  none  but  inferior  men  would 
seek  such  employment. 

Surely  the  poor  little  black  children  are  not  likely  un- 
der any  circumstances  to  suppose  that  they  are  the  equals 
of  the  members  of  the  proud  families  that  held  their 
fathers  in  slavery !  The  white  people  sorely  need  the  em- 
ployment; the  Negroes  still  more  need  the  example  and 
admonition  of  trained  and  high-minded  people.  The  re- 
lation is  not  unknown.  In  the  public  schools  of  Charles- 
ton, for  forty  years,  the  negro  children  have  been  taught 
by  white  ladies,  and  as  well  taught  as  the  white  children. 
In  Alabama,  and  even  in  Virginia,  public  schools  were  for 
a  time  taught  by  Whites,  and  you  hear  of  sporadic  cases 
elsewhere,  as  in  a  district  of  Louisiana,  where  the  mother 
of  the  chairman  of  the  school  board  was  a  teacher,  and  she 
was  so  incapable  that  no  white  school  would  have  her  on 
any  terms,  so  they  compromised  by  giving  her  a  negro 

386 


MORAL   REMEDIES 

school.  With  these  small  -  exceptions,  a  relation  between 
the  races,  through  which  none  of  the  dreaded  evils  of  race 
equality  could  come  about,  was  rejected;  and  that  is  the 
main  reason  why  the  negro  schools  have  been  poor  and 
continue  inferior.  The  Southern  woman  is  not  below  the 
Northern  in  a  sense  of  duty;  the  Southern  schoolmarm 
is  the  equal  of  her  Yankee  sister  in  refinement  and  in 
pluck;  and  the  Southern  woman  was  the  only  class  of 
people  in  the  South  who  could  at  the  same  time  have 
taught  the  pickaninnies  to  read,  and  the  older  people  to 
recognize  that  the  Whites  were  their  best  friends. 

Of  all  the  remedies  suggested,  education  is  the  most 
direct  and  the  most  practical  because  it  has  so  far  bee:i 
neglected;  education  is  needed  for  the  safety  of  the  race. 
As  Leroy  Percy,  the  successful  planter,  puts  it :  "  You 
cannot  send  these  men  out  to  fight  the  battle  of  life  help- 
lessly ignorant.  In  slavery,  he  was  the  slave  of  one,  and 
around  him  was  thrown  the  protecting  care  of  the  master. 
In  freedom  you  cannot,  through  the  helplessness  of  igno- 
rance, make  him  the  slave  of  every  white  man  with  no 
master's  protection  to  shield  him  " ;  and  he  adds,  "  The 
education  of  the  Negro,  to  the  extent  indicated,  is  neces- 
sary for  the  preservation  of  the  character  and  moral  in- 
tegrity of  the  white  men  of  the  South."  Professor  Gar- 
ner roundly  declares  that  "  Governor  Vardaman's  conten- 
tion that  education  increases  the  criminality  of  the  negro 
is  nothing  but  bold  assertion  and  has  never  been  supported 
by  adequate  proof." 

Education  is  just  as  much  needed  to  break  windows 
into  dark  minds,  to  open  up  whatever  of  the  spiritual  the 
Negro  can  take  to  himself.  It  is  the  one  remedy  in  which 
the  North  can  take  direct  part,  and  never  was  there  move 
need  of  maintaining  the  schools  in  the  South,  supported 

387 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

chiefly  by  Northern  contributions;  for  they  have  the  op- 
portunity to  teach  those  lessons  of  cleanliness  of  body  and 
mind,  of  respect  for  authority,  of  thrift,  personal  honesty, 
of  human  relations,  which  the  public  schools  are  less  fitted 
to  inculcate.  Many  of  these  schools  have  white  teachers, 
all  have  white  friends;  they  interfere  in  no  way  with  the 
education  furnished  by  the  South;  they  teach  no  lessons 
harmful  to  the  Negro  or  the  white  man;  they  perform  a 
function  which  the  Whites  in  the  South  offer  to  their  own 
race  by  endowed  schools  and  colleges,  and  which  they  do 
not  attempt  to  provide  for  the  Negroes.  Education  is 
not  a  cure-all,  education  is  only  the  bottom  step  of  a  long 
flight  of  stairs ;  but  neither  race  nor  individual  can  mount 
without  that  step. 

Throughout  this  book  it  has  been  steadily  kept  in  mind 
that  there  are  two  races  in  the  South  between  which  the 
Southern  problem  is  divided;  and  that  there  can  be  no 
progress  without  both  races  taking  part.  Here  is  the  most 
difficult  part  of  the  whole  matter :  the  two  races,  so  closely 
associated,  are  nevertheless  drifting  away  from  each  other. 
Time  was  when  men  like  Wade  Hampton,  of  South  Caro- 
lina, and  Senator  Lamar,  of  Mississippi,  expected  that 
Whites  and  Negroes  would  cooperate  in  political  parties; 
time  was  when  former  slaveholders  joined  with  former 
slaves  in  a  confident  attempt  to  bring  the  Negroes  up 
higher.  Those  voices  of  encouragement  still  are  heard, 
but  there  is  in  them  a  note  of  weariness.  Almost  every- 
body in  the  South  would  be  pleased  if  the  Negroes  (of 
course  without  prejudice  to  the  white  domination)  would 
rise  or  rise  faster.  It  would  mean  also  much  to  the 
white  race  if  the  cook  always  came  in  the  morning,  and 
the  outside  man  never  got  drunk,  and  the  cotton  hand 
would  raise  a  bale  to  the  acre,  and  the  school  child  would 

388 


MORAL    REMEDIES 

learn  to  read  about  how  to  keep  his  place  toward  the  white 
man. 

Every  thinking  man  in  the  South  knows  that  he  is 
worse  off  because  the  Negro  is  not  better  off.  That  is  the 
reason  of  the  rising  dissatisfaction,  wrath  and  resentment 
in  the  minds  of  many  Whites.  They  feel  that  the  Negro 
has  no  sense  of  responsibility  to  the  community;  they  ac- 
cuse him  of  sullenness,  of  a  lack  of  interest  in  his  em- 
ployment and  his  employer.  Just  what  the  Negro  thinks 
in  return  is  hard  to  guess.  "  Brer  Rabbit,  'e  ain't  sayin' 
nuffin  " ;  but  it  is  plain  that  the  races  are  less  friendly  to 
each  other,  understand  each  other  less,  are  less  regardful 
of  each  other's  interests,  than  at  any  time  since  freedom 
was  fairly  completed.  We  have  the  unhappy  condition  that 
while  both  races  are  doing  tolerably  well,  and  likely  to  do 
better,  race  relations  are  not  improving. 

In  other  parts  of  the  country  where  there  are  such 
rivalries,  efforts  are  made  to  come  to  an  understanding. 
Each  side  has  some  knowledge  of  the  arguments  of  the 
other;  they  appeal  to  the  same  press;  the  leaders  sooner 
or  later  are  brought  together  in  legislatures  or  in  a  social 
way,  and  gradually  come  to  understand  each  other's  diffi- 
culties. Some  efforts  have  been  made  in  the  South  to 
study  this  question  in  association.  The  Negroes  have  now 
several  organizations  which  bring  people  together  for  dis- 
cussion. The  Agricultural  and  Industrial  Fairs  which 
they  are  beginning  to  carry  on  are  one  such  influence. 
The  negro  schools  of  the  Calhoun  and  Talladega  type  So 
something;  the  large  annual  conferences  organized  by 
Atlanta,  Tuskegee,  and  Hampton,  with  their  subsequent 
publications,  are  a  kind  of  clearing  house  of  opinions  on 
the  conditions  of  the  Negro  and  of  sound  advice.  A  few 
years  ago  the  attempt  was  made  in  the  so-called  Niagara 

389 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

Movement  to  organize  the  Negroes  in  defense  of  their 
political  rights. 

On  the  side  of  the  Whites  there  has  been  the  Ogden 
Movement,  for  the  improvement  of  the  Southern  white 
education,  part  of  the  outcome  of  which  has  been  the  for- 
mation of  the  General  Education  Board  and  Southern 
Education  Board.  The  South  Atlantic  Quarterly,  pub- 
lished at  Trinity  College,  North  Carolina,  encourages  a 
free  exchange  of  views  on  Southern  conditions;  and 
though  the  Manufacturers'  Record  lays  the  responsibility 
for  the  Atlanta  riots  upon  the  Southern  white  people  who 
have  been  urging  moderation  in  the  South,  the  Southern 
educational  movement  goes  on  steadily,  and  seems  to  be 
gaining  ground. 

An  effort  was  made  after  the  riots  to  bring  about  a 
Southern  commission  of  three  white  men  from  each  state, 
to  discuss  plans  for  keeping  up  the  race  integrity  of  the 
Whites,  including  the  Negro  to  stay  on  the  soil,  educating 
both  races,  and  reforming  the  courts,  but  it  was  allowed 
to  fail.  Some  Southern  newspapers  bitterly  attacked  it 
on  the  ground  that  no  discussion  was  necessary ;  that  every- 
body knew  all  the  facts  that  were  cogent,  and  that  any 
such  discussion  of  the  negro  problem  would  be  likely  to 
bring  down  criticism  from  "  doctrinaires,  theorists  and 
self-constituted  proprietors  of  the  universe  in  the  North." 
To  the  Northern  mind  this  seems  one  of  the  most  alarm- 
ing things  about  the  whole  matter.  The  labor  question 
in  the  Northeast,  the  land  question  in  the  Northwest, 
are  openly  discussed  man  to  man,  and  newspaper  to  news- 
paper. Nobody  thinks  that  the  conditions  in  the  South 
are  agreeable;  everybody  would  like  to  see  some  better- 
ment; and  the  refusal  to  discuss  it  simply  makes  the 
crisis  worse. 

390 


MORAL   REMEDIES 

This  opposition  is  still  stronger  against  any  form  of 
joint  discussion  between  representatives  of  the  white  and 
negro  races.  The  real  objection  seems  to  be  that  it  would 
be  a  recognition  that  the  Negro  had  a  right  to  some  share 
in  adjusting  his  own  future,  and  that  what  he  thinks  about 
the  question  ought  to  have  weight  with  the  white  people. 
This  is  another  of  the  cruel  things  about  the  whole  situa- 
tion. The  whole  South  is  acquainted  with  the  negro  crim- 
inal and  the  shiftless  dweller  on  the  borders  of  the  cities; 
almost  no  white  people  are  acquainted  by  personal  obser- 
vation with  the  houses,  with  the  work,  and  still  less  with 
the  character  and  aims  of  the  best  element  of  the  Negroes. 
For  this  reason,  Northern  investigators  have  a  certain  ad- 
vantage in  that  they  may  freely  read  the  statements  of 
both  sides,  supplement  them  out  of  personal  experience 
and  conversation,  and  try  to  strike  a  balance.  There  are 
plenty  of  reasonable  people  in  both  races,  each  of  whom 
knows  his  own  side  better  than  anybody  else  can  possibly 
know  it ;  hence  mutual  discussion,  common  understanding, 
some  kind  of  programme  toward  which  public  sentiment 
might  be  directed,  would  seem  an  obvious  remedy,  and  is 
upheld  by  such  men  as  Thomas  Nelson  Page;  yet  it  is  a 
remedy  which  is  never  tried. 

All  the  suggestions  that  have  been  discussed  above 
may  be  roughly  classified  into  remedies  of  push  and  reme- 
dies of  pull,  and  this  classification  corresponds  to  the 
points  of  view  of  the  two  dominant  classes  of  Southern 
Whites.  In  studying  the  books,  the  articles  and  the  fugi- 
tive utterances  on  this  subject,  in  talking  with  men  who 
see  the  thing  at  first  hand,  in  noting  the  complaints  of 
the  Negroes  and  the  Whites  alike,  it  is  plain  that  there  is 
in  the  South  a  strong  negro-hating  element,  larger  than 
people  like  to  admit,  which  appeals  to  drastic  statutes,  to 

391 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

unequal  judicial  punishments,  to  violence  outside  of  the 
law ;  in  a  word,  to  "  keeping  the  nigger  down."  Along- 
side it  the  thinking  class  of  Southern  people  (which  ap- 
pears to  be  gaining  ground)  seeks  the  elevation  of  both 
races,  and  especially  of  that  one  which  needs  it  most. 
Meanwhile  the  Negro  sits  moodily  by,  waiting  for  the  su- 
perior race  to  decide  whether  he  shall  be  sent  to  the  cala- 
boose or  to  school. 

The  Southern  problem  is  thus  brought  down  in  its  last 
analysis  to  the  simple  question  whether  the  two  races  can 
permanently  live  apart  and  yet  together.  That  depends, 
in  the  first  place,  on  the  capacity  of  the  Negro  to  improve 
far  enough  to  take  away  the  reproach  now  heaped  upon 
him;  and  in  the  second  place  in  the  willingness  of  the 
Whites  to  accept  the  deficiencies  of  the  negro  character  as 
a  part  of  the  natural  conditions  of  the  land,  like  the 
sterility  of  parts  of  the  Southern  soil,  and  to  leave  him 
the  opportunity  to  make  the  most  of  himself. 

The  three  fundamental  duties  of  the  white  man,  ac- 
cording to  Judge  Hammond,  of  Atlanta,  are  to  see  "  that 
his  own  best  interest  lies  in  the  cultivation  of  friendly  re- 
lations with  the  negro.  ...  To  treat  the  negro  with  abso- 
lute fairness  and  justice  .  .  .  advising  him  and  counseling 
him  about  the  important  affairs  of  his  everyday  life." 
These  duties  lie  upon  the  white  man  because,  as  Thomas 
Nelson  Page  states  it :  "  Unless  the  whites  lift  the  Negroes 
up,  the  Negroes  will  drag  them  down." 

Nobody,  white  or  black,  North  or  South,  is  able  to  point 
out  any  single  positive  means  by  which  the  two  races  are 
both  to  have  their  full  development  and  yet  to  live  in 
peace.  Every  positive  and  quick-acting  remedy  when  ex- 
amined is  found  invalid.  Violence  of  language  or  of  be- 
havior of  both  sides  does  nothing  whatever  to  remove  the 

392 


MORAL  REMEDIES 

real  difficulties.  The  agencies  of  uplift  are  slow  and  un- 
certain and  nobody  can  positively  predict  that  they  will  do 
the  work.  The  South,  with  all  its  magnificent  resources, 
is  far  behind  the  other  sections  of  the  Union,  both  in  wealth 
and  productive  power.  It  can  only  take  its  proper  place 
in  the  Union  by  raising  the  average  character  and  en- 
ergy of  its  people — of  all  its  people — for  it  cannot  be 
done  by  improving  either  race  while  the  other  remains 
stationary. 

In  a  word,  the  remedy  is  patience.  Dark  as  things  look 
in  the  South,  it  is  subject  to  mighty  forces.  In  many 
ways  the  strongest  influence  for  peace  and  concord  in  the 
South  is  simply  self-interest.  The  most  intelligent  and 
thoughtful  men  in  the  South  see  clearly  that  unless  the 
people  can  be  made  to  improve,  the  section  will  always 
lag  behind.  Side  by  side  with  this  force  is  the  spirit 
of  humanity,  of  practical  Christianity,  which  forbids 
that  milions  of  people  shall  be  cut  off  from  the  agen- 
cies of  evangelization.  The  South  is  behind  no  other 
part  of  the  country  in  a  sense  of  the  greatness  of  moral 
forces. 

From  every  point  of  view,  the  obvious  thing  for  the 
South  is  to  make  the  best  of  its  condition  and  not  the 
worst,  to  give  opportunities  of  uplift  to  all  those  who  can 
appropriate  them,  to  raise  the  negro  race  to  as  high  a 
point  as  it  is  capable  of  occupying.  This  is  a  long,  hard 
process,  full  of  disappointment  and  perhaps  of  bitterness. 
The  problem  is  not  soluble  in  the  sense  that  anyone  can 
foresee  a  wholly  peaceful  and  contented  community  divided 
into  two  camps;  but  the  races  can  live  alongside,  and  co- 
operate, though  one  be  superior  to  the  other.  That  superi- 
ority only  throws  the  greater  responsibility  on  the  upper 
race.  Nobody  has  ever  given  better  advice  to  the  South 

393 


THE    SOUTHERN    SOUTH 

than  Senator  John  Sharp  Williams — "  In  the  face  of  this 
great  problem  it  would  be  well  that  wise  men  think  move, 
that  good  men  pray  more,  and  that  all  men  talk  less  and 
curse  less."  In  that  spirit  the  problem  will  be  solved,  be- 
cause it  will  be  manfully  confronted. 


MAP  AND  TABLES 


20 


COMPARATIVE  POPULATION    (1900) 

WHITE    ELEMENTS  CONTRASTED 

(In  Thousands) 


NORTHERN  GROUPS  (1900). 

EQUIVALENT  SOUTHERN  GROUPS  (1900). 

Whites. 

Colored. 

3 

2 

Whites. 

Colored. 

TB 
5 

1  Colorado      .  . 

529 
2,459 
303 
2,219 
1,416 
2,399 
1,737 
1,059 

9 
58 
37 
13 
52 
16 
5 
6 

540 
2,516 
392 
2,232 
1,470 
2,421 
1,751 
1,066 

1  Alabama  

1,001 
945 
297 
1,181 
730 
641 
1,264 
558 
1,540 
1,193 

827 
367 
231 
1,035 
651 
908 
624 
782 
480 
661 

1,829 
1,312 
529 
2,216 
1,382 
1,551 
1,894 
1,340 
2,021 
1,854 

2  Indiana 

2  Arkansas  

3  Indian  Ter  
4  Iowa 

3  Florida         

4  Georgia     

5  Kansas         .  .  . 

5  Louisiana  

6  Michigan  

6  Mississippi.  ..... 
7  North  Carolina.  .  . 
8  South  Carolina  .  .  . 
9  Tennessee  

7  Minnesota  

8  Nebraska  

Total  

10  Virginia  

Total  10  States  
1  1  Texas  

9,350 
2,427 

6,566 
.  621 

15,928 
3,049 

Total  11  Seced- 
ing States.  .  .  . 

12  Delaware  

12,121 

196 

12,388 

11,777 

7,187 

18,977 

9  North  Dakota.  . 
10  Oklahoma... 

312 
368 
381 
272 
2,058 
1,403 
154 
226 
395 
343 

19 

1 
3 
11 

2 

1 
1 

319 
398 
402 
277 
2,069 
1,485 
162 
243 
414 
344 

154 
192 
1,862 
952 
2,945 

31 

87 
285 
235 
161 

185 
279 
2,147 
1,188 
3,107 

13  Dist.  of  Columbia. 
14  Kentucky  

11  South  Dakota.. 
12  Utah  

15  Maryland  

13  Wisconsin  
14  California  

16  Missouri     

Total  South.  .  .  . 

15  Idaho  

16  Montana  

17  Oregon  

18  Vermont  

Double  Total 

18,033 

234 

18,501 

17,882 

7,986 

25,883 

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403 


COMPARATIVE  MANUFACTURES    (1906) 

SOUTHERN  GROUPS 
(Money  Values  in  Thousands  of  Dollars) 


No.  of 
Estab- 
lish- 
ments. 

Wage 
Earners. 

Capital. 

Annual 
Wages. 

Cost  of 
Material. 

Value  of 
Products. 

1  Alabama  

1  882 

62  173 

105  383 

21  878 

60458 

109  170 

2  Arkansas  

1  907 

33  089 

46  306 

14  544 

21  799 

53  864 

3  Florida       

1  413 

42  091 

32  972 

15  767 

16  532 

50  298 

4  Georgia            .... 

3  219 

92  749 

135  212 

27  392 

83  625 

151  040 

5  Louisiana  

2,091 

55  859 

150,811 

25316 

117,035 

186,380 

6  Mississippi     

1  520 

38  690 

50256 

14  819 

25  801 

57  451 

7  North  Carolina.  .  . 
8  South  Carolina...  . 
9  Tennessee  

3,272 
1,399 
3  175 

85,339 
59,441 
60  572 

141,001 
113,422 
102  439 

21,375 
13,869 
22  806 

79,268 
49,969 
79,352 

142,521 
79,376 
137  960 

10  Virginia  

3,187 

80285 

147,989 

27943 

83  649 

148,856 

Total  10  States.. 
11  Texas  

23,065 
3,158 

610,288 
49,066 

1,025,791 
115,665 

205,709 
24,469 

617,488 
91,604 

1,116,916 
150,528 

Total,  11  Seced- 
ing States.  .  .  . 

26,223 

659,354 

1,141,456 

230,178 

709,092 

1,267,444 

12  Delaware  

631 

18,475 

50,926 

8,158 

24,884 

41,160 

13  Dist.  of  Columbia. 
14  Kentucky  

482 
3,734 

6,299 
59,794 

20,200 
147,282 

3,658 
24,439 

7,732 
86,545 

18,359 
159,754 

15  Maryland  

3,852 

94,174 

201,878 

36,144 

150,024 

243,376 

6,464 

133,167 

379,369 

66,644 

252,258 

439,549 

Total   Border 
States  

15,163 

311,909 

799,655 

139,043 

521,443 

902,198 

Whole  South  

41,386 

071,263 

1,941,111 

369,221 

1,230,535 

2,169,642 

404 


COMPARATIVE  MANUFACTURES  (1905) 

EQUIVALENT  NORTHERN  GROUPS 
(Money  Valuss  in  Thousands  of  Dollars) 


No.  of 
Estab- 
lish- 
ments. 

Wage 
Earners. 

Annual 
Wages. 

Capital. 

Cost  of 
Material. 

Value  of 
Products. 

1  Colorado  

1,606 
7,044 
466 
4,785 
2,475 
7,446 
4,756 
1,819 
507 
657 
686 
606 
8,558 

21,813 
154,174 
2,257 
49,451 
35,570 
175,229 
69,636 
20,260 
1,755 
3,199 
2,492 
8,052 
151,391 

107,664 
312,071 
5,016 
111,427 
88,680 
337,894 
184,903 
80,235 
5,704 
11,108 
7,585 
26,004 
412,647 

15,100 
72,056 
1,114 
22,997 
18,883 
81,279 
35,843 
11,022 
1,031 
1,655 
1,422 
5,157 
71,472 

63,114 
220,507 
4,849 
102,844 
156,510 
230,081 
210,554 
124,052 
7,096 
11,545 
8,697 
24,940 
227,255 

100,144 
393,954 
7,909 
160,572 
198,245 
429,120 
307,858 
154,918 
10,218 
16,550 
13,085 
38,926 
411,140 

2  Indiana  

3  Indian  Ter'  .       .  . 

4  Iowa  

5  Kansas  

6  Michigan  

7  Minnesota  

8  Nebraska  

9  North  Dakota  
10  Oklahoma. 

11  South  Dakota.  .  .  . 
12  Utah  

13  Wisconsin  

Total  

41,411 

695,279 

1,690,938  339,023    1,392,044 

2,242,639 

14  California  

6,839 
364 
382 
1,602 
1,699 
2,751 

100,355 
3,061 
8,957 
18,523 
33,106 
45,199 

282,647 
9,689 
52,590 
44,024 
62,659 
96,953 

64,657 
2,a59 
8,652 
11,444 
15,221 
30,087 

215,726 
4,069 
40,930 
30,597 
32,430 
66,166 

367,218 
8,769 
66,415 
55,525 
63,084 
128,822 

15  Idaho  

16  Montana  

17  Oregon  

18  Vermont  

19  \Vashington         .  . 

Total             .... 

13,637 

209,201 

548,562 

132,120 

389,918 

689,833 

Double  Total.  .  . 
20  Arizona  

55,048 

904,480 

2,239,500  471,143    1,781,962    2,032,472 

169 
14,921 
115 
199 
1,618 
169 
2,109 

4,793 
379,436 
802 
3,478 
65,366 
1,834 
43,758 

14,396 
975,845 
2,892 
4,638 
109,495 
2,696 
86,821 

3,969 
208,405 
693 
2,153 
27,693 
1,261 
21,153 

14,595         28,083 
840,057    1,410,342 
1,628           3.096 
2,236           5,706 
73,210        123,  (ill 
1,301            3,523 
54,419          99.041 

21   Illinois  

22  Nevada  

23  New  Mexico  

24  New  Hampshire.  . 
25  \Vyoming         .... 

26  West  Virginia.  .  .  . 
Total  

19,300 

499,407 

1.1»«,7.S3  205,327 

987,452 

1,073.402 
4,  00  \874 

Grand  Total..  .  . 

74,348 

1,403,947 

3,  130,2X3 

730,470 

2,769,414 

405 


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COMPARATIVE   COMMON   SCHOOL   EDUCATION   (1907) 
SOUTHERN  GROUPS 


FINANCES. 

Teachers. 

Average 
Attendance 
[thousands]. 

Value  of 
School 
Property 
[thousands] 

Annual 
Revenue 
[thousands] 

Annual 
Expendi- 
ture 
[thousands]. 

1  Alabama  

7,757 

249 

4  569 

2  287 

2  620 

2  Arkansas  

8  113 

221 

4  039 

2  428 

2  414 

3  Florida              .... 

3  362 

91 

2  001 

1  384 

1  352 

4  Georgia  

10  379 

317 

5  822 

2  831 

2  850 

5  Louisiana  

5  615 

160 

4  098 

2,952 

2  169 

6  Mississippi  

9  499 

285 

2  190 

1,511 

2  641 

7  North  Carolina  
8  South  Carolina.  .  .  . 
9  Tennessee  

10,146 

6,228 
9  829 

297 
222 
353 

4,250 
2,200 
6  332 

2,519 
1,531 
3,314 

2,378 
1,416 
2  705 

10  Virginia  

9  468 

220 

5718 

3,323 

3  357 

Total  10  States.. 
11  Texas  

80,396 
17,867 

2,415 
499 

41,219 
15,178 

24,080 
7,443 

23,902 
7,402 

Total,  11  Seced- 
ing States.  .  .  . 

98,263 

2,914 

56,397 

31,523 

31,304 

12  Delaware  . 

897 

25 

1,627 

499 

540 

13  Dist.  of  Columbia.  . 
14  Kentucky  

1,575 
9,245 

43 
310 

7,005 
6,368 

2,164 
4,263 

2,012 
4,051 

15  Maryland,  ........ 

5,290 

135 

4,790 

3,424 

3,307 

16  Missouri  

17,847 

493 

27,847 

10,853 

8,482 

Total  South  

133,117 

3,920 

104,034 

52726 

49  696 

410 


COMPARATIVE   COMMON   SCHOOL   EDUCATION   (1907) 
EQUIVALENT  NOHTHKRN  GROUPS 


FINANCES. 

Teachers. 

Average 
Attendance 
[thousands]. 

Value  of 
School 
Property 
[thousands]. 

Annual 
Revenue 
[thousands]. 

Annual 
Expendi- 
ture 
[thousands]. 

1  Colorado  

4  944 

106 

10207 

5  836 

4  476 

2  Indiana  

16  841 

420 

31  409 

13  816 

12  012 

3  Indian  Terr  

2  740 

61 

2  175 

790 

920 

4  Iowa  

28  508 

366 

24  950 

11  619 

10681 

5  Kansas  

12,743 

277 

11  000 

6  294 

6  874 

6  Michigan  

17,286 

423 

30944 

15  260 

12086 

7  Minnesota  

13,928 

322 

26,000 

11  085 

10803 

8  Nebraska  

10,059 

186 

12,755 

5809 

5,561 

9  North  Dakota  
10  Oklahoma        

6,109 
4  386 

72 
103 

4,900 
3  624 

3,000 
2  053 

2,900 
1,629 

11  South  Dakota  
12  Utah  

5,358 
2  010 

65 
61 

5,138 
3  577 

2,702 
1  996 

2,730 
2,056 

13  Wisconsin  

14,491 

328 

23,243 

10,223 

8,946 

Total  

139  403 

2,790 

190,012 

90483 

81,674 

14  California  

9  714 

248 

36,680 

10,914 

12,219 

15  Idaho  

1  897 

48 

3,162 

1,240 

1,370 

1,741 

35 

3,489 

1,597 

1,716 

17  Oregon  

4,228 

77 

5,732 

2,671 

2,474 

18  Vermont  

3,984 

49 

3,416 

1,255 

1,271 

19  Washington  

6209 

131 

12,448 

5,397 

5  504 

Double  Total... 

167,176 

3,378 

254,939 

113,557 

106,228 

20  Arizona  

626 

15 

1  158 

610 

020 

21  Illinois  

28  083 

770 

69  142 

30  958 

30,1U»« 

22  Nevada  

322 

7 

523 

345 

490 

23  New  Mexico  

923 

25 

1,000 

524 

484 

24  New  Hampshire.  .  . 
25  Wyoming  

2,916 

787 

50 
14 

5,240 
914 

1,379 
609 

1,453 
436 

26  West  Virginia  

8,061 

165 

7,113 

3,400 

3,361 

Grand  Total  

208,894 

4,424 

340,029 

151,472 

143,178 

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INDEX 


INDEX 


Abbott,  E.  H.,  articles  by,  on 
Southern  question,  18. 

Advance  system  on  cotton  plan- 
tations, 268;  lien  loans,  268; 
impositions,  269-270,  272; 
specimen  accounts,  271; 
Christmas  money,  272. 

Africa,  negroes  in,  94-97.  See 
also  Colonization. 

Afro- American  as  name  for  Ne- 
gro, 92. 

Agriculture.  Southern  crops,  24, 
220;  poor  white  farmers  and 
tenants,  41,  45;  foreign  labor- 
ers, 57;  white  small  farmers, 
60;  negro  life,  115-116;  Ne- 
groes as  laborers,  127;  farms 
owned  by  Negroes,  144-145; 
amount  of  negro  products, 
145;  actual  wealth  of  Southern 
states,  220-221 ;  population 
221;  reclamation  of  swamps, 
221;  comparative  wealth  of 
seceding  states,  237-238;  of 
whole  South,  241;  compara- 
tive value  of  cotton  and  other 
Southern  crops,  251.  See  also 
Cotton. 


Alabama.  Mining,  24;  Republi- 
can party,  173;  negro  voters, 
176;  leasing  of  convicts,  201, 
contract  law  and  peonage, 
283;  illiteracy,  293;  per-capita 
school  tax,  295;  comparative 
statistics,  39.5-415. 

Albany,  Ga.,  negro  school  near, 
312. 

Alderman,  E.  A.,  and  negro 
progress,  179. 

Alexander's  Magazine,  18. 

Alexandria,  La.,  Italians  at, 
56. 

Amalgamation  of  races.  Evil  of, 
157;  determination  against, 
344,  349.  See  also  Miscegena- 
tion, Mulattoes. 

American  Colonization  Society 
and  Liberia,  96,  97.  See  also 
Colonization. 

American  Magazine,  articles  in, 
on  race  question,  18. 

Americus,  Ga.,  as  trade  center, 
26. 

Amusements,  negro,  116. 

Andersonville,  Ga.,  statue  to 
Wirz  in,  88. 

Andrew,  .1.  A.,  protest  of,  against 
class  prejudice,  105. 


INDEX 


Appalachian     Forest     Reserve, 

proposed,  223. 
Architecture,  Southern  standard 

of,  26,  304. 
Arizona,    comparative    statistics 

of,  395-415. 

Arkansas.    Illiteracy,  293;  com- 
parative statistics,  395-415. 
Armstrong,  S.  C.,  and  Hampton 

Institute,       334.      See      also 

Hampton. 

Art  galleries  in  South,  304. 
Assessment.    See  Taxation. 
Association  of  Colleges,  300. 
Atlanta.    Size,  28;  progress,  29, 

242;   foreign  population,   51; 

negro   population,    107;   race 

riot,  206,  390. 

Atlanta,  University  of.    Confer- 
ences, 131,  389;  founding,  309. 

See  also  Colleges. 
Atlanta  Evening  News  and  race 

riot,  206. 
Atlanta  Georgian,  on  lynching, 

213. 
Augusta,  Ga.,  water  power  of, 

26. 

Austin.  Capitol,  27;  progress,  29. 
Avary,  Myrta  L.,  on  educational 

value  of  slavery,  84. 


B 


Baker,  U.S.,  articles  by,  on  race 
question,  18. 

Baldwin  Co.,  Ala.,  Northerners 
in,  48. 

Bale,  cotton.  Making,  259; 
round,  259;  careless  construc- 
tion, 274. 


Baltimore.  Foreign  population, 
51;  as  port,  229,  233;  schools, 
296,  315. 

Banishment  of  Negroes,  195, 
205,  206. 

Banking,  Southern,  225;  com- 
parative statistics  of,  236,  238, 
402-403;  and  cotton  culture, 
263;  need  of  savings  banks, 
376. 

Baptist  Church,  negro,  117. 

"  Basket-name, "  138. 

Bassett,  J.  S.,  and  race  problem, 
72,  345. 

Beaufort  County,  S.  C.,  negro 
suffrage  in,  176.  See  also  Sea 
Islands. 

"  Before  Day  Clubs, "  190. 

Bell,  of  Alabama.  Plantation, 
254;  and  negro  uplift,  373. 

Benevolent  institutions,  com- 
parative statistics  of,  North 
and  South,  237,  406-407. 

Benson  settlement,  141,  371. 

Berea  College  and  negro  educa- 
tion, 317. 

Bernhard  of  Saxe-Weimar,  Duke, 
on  cotton  seed,  260. 

Bibliography  of  Southern  prob- 
lem, 7-19;  bibliographies,  7; 
anti-negro  works,  8-12;  con- 
servative Southern  books,  12- 
14;  works  by  Negroes,  14-17; 
monographic  studies,  17;  mag- 
azine articles,  18;  necessity  of 
first-hand  investigation,  19. 

Birmingham,  Ala.     Iron  trade, 

25;  progress,  29,  242. 
'    Birmingham  Age  Herald  on  pun- 
ishment of  vagrancy,  383. 


IXDEX 


Black-and-tan  Republicans,  173. 
Black  Belt.    Extent,  21;  mauu-  | 

factures,  25;  trade  centers,  26; 

richness  of  soil,  220. 
Blount    College    and    coeduca- 
tion, 290. 
Blowing  Rock,  N.  C.,  view  from, 

31. 

"  Bohunks, "  54. 
"  Boomer  "  described,  34. 
Boyd,  J.  E.,  and  peonage,  285. 
Brawley,  W.  H.,  and  peonage, 

285. 
Brookhaven,  Miss.,  violence  in, 

199,  211,  212,  214. 
Brown,  W.  G.,  "Lower  South," 

14. 

Brownsville  incident,  129,  194. 
Bruce,  P.  A.,  on  Virginians  of 

seventeenth  century,  82. 
Bruce,  R.  C.,  as  leader,  371. 
Brunswick,  Ga.,  as  port,  22,  229. 
Business.    Leadership  in  South, 

62;  Negroes  in,  130. 


Cairo,  111.,  mob  in,  207. 

Calhoun,  J.  C.,  Northern  educa- 
tion of,  290. 

Calhoun,  Ala.  Negro  commun- 
ity, 141;  school,  318,  389. 

California.  School  expenditures, 
295;  comparative  statistics, 
397-417. 

Cann,  Judge,  on  concealment  of 
negro  criminals,  193. 

Capital,  in  South,  225;  compara- 
tive statistics  of  banking,  402- 
403;ofmanufacturing,404-40.>. 


Carnegie  Educational  Fund  and 
Southern  colleges,  300. 

Catholic  Church  and  Negroes, 
117. 

Cavaliers,  myth  of  Southern  de- 
scent from,  81. 

Census  Bureau,  data  from,  235. 
See  also  Population. 

Ceylon,  advance  system  in,  272. 

Chain  gangs  in  South,  200. 

Chamberlain,  D.  H.,  on  lynch- 
ing, 213. 

Charleston.  As  port,  22,  229; 
character,  28;  negro  morality, 
108;  Crum  incident,  171. 

Charleston  News  and  Courier, 
character  of,  70. 

Chattanooga,  lynching  at,  212. 

Chesnutt,  C.  W.,  as  writer,  15, 
325. 

Child  labor  in  South,  264. 

Chinese  and  South,  54. 

"  Christmas  money, "  272. 

Churchill,  W.  S.,  on  Negroes  in 
Africa,  95. 

Cities.  Chief  Southern,  22; 
growth  of  smaller  Southern,  26 ; 
effect  on  Whites  and  Negroes, 
27 ;  urban  population  of  South, 
28;  progress  of  Southern,  28; 
negro  life,  114,  167;  schools, 
291,  296,  314,  315. 

Civil  War.  Poor  Whites  and, 
40;  present  Southern  attitude 
toward  secession,  84;  towards 
Northern  leaders,  85  ;  belief 
in  impoverishment  through 
emancipation,  86;  Andorson- 
ville  and  statue  of  Wirz,  SS; 
negro  soldiers,  l'2'J. 


123 


Clay  Eaters,  name  for  Poor 
Whites,  38. 

Clearings,  bank,  comparative 
statistics  of,  North  and  South, 
402-403. 

Climate  of  South,  24,  25. 

Coal  in  South,  224,  225. 

Cole,  peonage  case,  282. 

Colleges,  Southern.  Antebel- 
lum, 290;  present  develop- 
ment, 292,  302;  comparative 
statistics,  296,  300,  414-415; 
for  women,  301,  302;  ranking 
institutions,  302;  state  uni- 
versity funds,  302;  and  pol- 
itics, 302;  Northern  instruc- 
tors, 303;  endowments,  307; 
postbellum  negro,  309;  char- 
acter of  negro,  315,  317;  need 
of  negro,  317,  336;  number  of 
negro  graduates,  318;  objec- 
tions to  negro,  331-332;  aca- 
demic versus  industrial  train- 
ing for  Negroes,  332-336. 

Collier's  Weekly  on  Southern 
progress,  247. 

Colonization  of  Negroes.  At- 
tempts, 96-97;  not  a  solution 
of  race  problem,  350-352. 

Colorado,  comparative  statis- 
tics of,  397-417. 

Colored  person  as  name  for  Ne- 
gro, 92. 

Columbia,  S.  C.  Water  power, 
26;  progress,  29;  manufactur- 
ing output,  276. 

Columbus,  Ga.,  water  power  in, 
26. 

Commerce.  Southern  ports,  22, 
228-229;  South  and  Panama 


Canal,  22;  Southern  inland 
centers,  26;  of  Liberia,  96; 
Southern  inland  transporta- 
tion, 226-230;  through  South- 
ern ports,  233;  and  race  sep- 
aration, 357. 

Concealed  weapons,  carrying  of, 
in  South,  37,  64,  196,  216. 

Conferences,  negro,  131,  389. 

Congress,  no  interference  by,  in 
race  problem,  347-348. 

Consumption,  negro  mortality, 
108. 

Convicts.  Number,  North  and 
South,  197;  Southern  treat- 
ment, 200-202,  286. 

Cooperative  Educational  Asso- 
ciation of  Virginia,  306. 

Corbin,  Austin,  Sunny  Side  plan- 
tation, 57,  256,  281. 

Cordova,  S.  C.,  and  negro  educa- 
tion, 327. 

Corn,  comparative  value  of  crops 
of,  237,  241,  242,  248,  251. 

Cotton.  Extent  of  belt,  21,  252; 
Southern  manufactures,  25, 
274,  276;  Poor  Whites  and 
manufacture,  45,  275;  for- 
eign and  negro  cultivators, 
58;  value  of  crop,  237,  241, 
248;  making  of,  250-260; 
Southern  claim  of  importance, 
250;  monopolizes  Southern 
interest,  250;  compared  with 
other  Southern  crops,  251- 
252;  and  race  problem,  252, 
261,  267;  history,  prices,  252; 
staples,  252;  fertilizing,  253; 
application  of  term  planta- 
tion, 253-255;  types  of  plan- 


TXDEX 


tations,  255-256;  white  la- 
borers, 255,  262,  264,  267; 
labor  system,  257,  261;  cul- 
tivation, 257-258;  yield  per 
acre,  258;  ginning  and  baling, 
258,  274;  round  bale,  259; 
seed  as  product,  260;  hands, 
261-277;  independent  negro 
raisers,  262;  relation  of  negro 
hands  to  plantation,  262,  266; 
character  of  labor,  263;  man- 
agement of  plantation,  263- 
264;  working  division  of  plan- 
tations, 264;  renters,  croppers, 
and  wage  hands,  265-266;  ex- 
tra work,  266;  instability  of 
negro  laborers,  266;  negro  mo- 
nopoly of  labor,  267,  277; 
necessity  of  training  of  labor- 
ers, 267,  273,  274;  complaints 
of  negro  hands,  267;  advance 
system  and  its  effect,  268-273; 
wastefulness  of  culture  and 
distribution,  273;  selection  of 
seed,  274;  culture  and  practi- 
cal peonage,  279. 

Cotton  seed.  Seed  trust  of  Sea 
Island  staple,  252;  value  as 
product,  260;  selection,  274. 

"Cotton-weed,"  256. 

Courts.  Conduct  of  criminal  trials 
in  South,  198-199;  suggestion 
of  negro,  383.  See  also  Crime. 

Crackers,  name  for  Poor  Whites, 
38. 

Crime  in  South.  Mountaineer, 
37 ;  concealed  weapons,  37,  64, 
196,  216;  mulattoes  and,  112; 
and  its  penalties,  181-204;  in 
North,  183;  Northern  ideas  of 


Southern,  184;  proportion  of 
homicides,  1S4,  107;  character 
of  white  homicides,  185;  crim- 
inality of  Negroes,  186-189; 
negro  education  and,  188.  189, 

192,  328,  334,  343,  387;  Ne- 
groes and  organized,  189;  con- 
ditions promoting  negro,  190; 
Before  Day  Clubs,  190;  negro 
assault  on  white  women,  191- 

193,  208;  concealment  of  ne- 
gro  criminals,    193;    criminal 
example  of  Whites,  194,  207; 
whipping  of  Negroes,  194,  205; 
banishment  of  Negroes,   195, 
205,    206;    homicide    of    Ne- 
groes   by    Whites,     195-1%; 
treatment  of  Negroes  by  po- 
lice, 196;  relative  convictions, 
North  and  South,    197;  con- 
duct of  murder  trials,  198;  ne- 
gro trials  and  protection,  199; 
chain  gangs,  200;  prisons,  201 ; 
leasing  of  convicts,  201,  286; 
prison  reform,  202;  pardons, 
203  ;      white      responsibility 
for  inefficient  criminal  justice, 
203;  race  riots,  205-208;  lynch- 
ing, 208-217,  361-365;  preva- 
lence, 216;  influences  working 
against,  216;  and  race  animos- 
ity, 339;  preventative  meji-;- 
ures  for  negro,  381-384;  com- 
parative statistics  of  prisoner.;. 
North    and    South,   406-40:. 
See  also  Peonage. 

Croppers  on  cotton  plantations, 
266. 

Crum,  W.  D.,  opposition  to  ap- 
pointment of,  171. 


IXDEX 


Cuba,  Negroes  in,  98. 

Cullman,  Ala.,  excludes  Negroes, 

167. 
Cutler,  J.  E.,  on  lynching,  191, 

208,  362. 


Dallas,  progress,  29. 

Davis,  Jeff,  as  political  leader, 
63. 

Davis,  Jefferson,  on  Southland, 
2. 

Dayton  plantation,  255. 

Death-rate,  negro,  107-110. 

Debts,  comparative  public,  of 
South,  246. 

Delaware,  comparative  statis- 
tics of.  397-417. 

Democratic  party,  effect  of  con- 
trol of,  in  South,  72,  173,  174. 

Deposits,  bank,  comparative, 
statistics  of,  North  and  South, 
402-403. 

District  of  Columbia,  compara- 
tive statistics  of,  397-417. 

Divorce,  negro,  135. 

Dixon,  Thomas,  Jr.  As  writer 
on  race  question,  9;  on  South- 
ern temperament,  68;  on  Re- 
construction, 86;  on  misce- 
genation, 155;  and  suppression 
of  negro  development,  180, 
345,  370;  on  Booker  Washing- 
ton and  Tuskegee,  319,  332; 
on  cost  of  negro  education, 
328;  on  terrorizing  Negroes, 
360. 

Domestic  servants,  negro,  124- 
127. 


Domination,  negro,  as  live  ques- 
tion, 160. 

"  Dooley,  Mr. "  on  terrorizing 
Negroes,  358. 

Dothan,  Ala.,  abortive  lynching 
in,  211. 

Douglass,  Margaret,  negro  school 
held  by,  309. 

Drink.  Negroes  and,  109,  117; 
Southern  manufacture  of  liq- 
uor, 225;  Southern  prohibi- 
tion, 384. 

Drug  habit,  negro,  109. 

Du  Bois,  W.  E.  B.  Bibliogra- 
phies of  negro  question,  8; 
as  writer  and  investigator  of 
negro  question,  16-17,  114; 
literary  style,  16,  325;  on  race 
problem,  69;  on  gospel  of 
work,  120;  on  suffrage  and 
leadership,  131;  on  race  pre- 
judice, 161  ;  "Litany  of  At- 
lanta," 207;  on  race  separa- 
tion and  progress,  318;  on 
right  to  education,  325,  333, 
336. 

Dunbar,  P.  L.  And  negro  ques- 
tion, 16;  on  unaccountability, 
187;  on  industry,  372. 

Dunleith  plantation,  265. 

Durham,  N.  C.,  tobacco  manu- 
facture in,  225. 

E 

Edmonds,  R.  H.,  on  Southern 

potential  wealth,  231. 
Education,    negro.       Illiteracy, 

98,  293,  294,  320;  in  North,  99; 

negro  teachers,  130,  314;  and 


426 


IXDEX 


crime,  188,  189,  192,  328,  334, 
343,  387;  race  separation,  168, 
313;  of  cotton  hands,  267,  273; 
problem,  308;  antebellum,  308; 
during  and  after  Civil  War, 
309;  beginning  of  public 
schools,  310;  present  status  of 
public  schools,  310;  white  op- 
position, 311,  323-337;  typ- 
ical rural  schools,  311-313;  re- 
fusal of  authorities  to  provide 
schools,  313;  interaction  of 
poor  schools  and  attendance, 
313,  320;  character  of  urban 
schools,  314;  secondary  and 
higher,  314;  private  schools, 
white  opposition,  315-317, 
319,  332;  colleges,  315,  317- 
318;  boycotting  of  white 
teachers,  316;  influence  of  pri- 
vate schools,  318;  Hampton 
and  Tuskegee  and  industrial, 
319;  question  of  federal  aid, 
321,  348;  private  funds,  322; 
as  help  in  race  problem,  320, 
385-388;  needs,  320-321,  385- 
387;  questions  of  negro  cap- 
ability, 323-327;  question  of 
harmful,  327;  cost  to  South, 
328;  as  unreasonable  burden 
on  Whites,  328-331;  opposi- 
tion to  academic,  331;  public 
industrial  training,  332;  aca- 
demic versus  industrial,  332- 
334;  contradictory  objections, 
333,  337;  professional,  335;  op- 
position to  secondary,  335;  ne- 
cessity of  academic,  336;  fun- 
damental race  objection,  336; 
negro  complaints,  336;  com- 
28  4 


parative  statistics,  secondary, 
North  and  South,  412-413. 

Education,  white,  in  South.  Of 
Mountaineers,  36,  37;  of  Poor 
Whites,  44;  comparative  sta- 
tistics of  seceding  states,  237, 
248,  294,  408-417;  of  whole 
South,  241,  248,  295,  408- 
417;  on  basis  of  white  pop- 
ulation, 295;  divergent  views 
of  need,  288 ;  tradition  of 
culture,  289;  antebellum,  289- 
290;  postbellum,  290;  de- 
velopment of  public  schools, 
291;  of  secondary  and  higher 
systems,  292;  normal,  292; 
comparative  illiteracy,  292- 
294;  urban  schools,  296;  rural 
schools,  296-299;  rural  super- 
intendence, 299;  secondary, 
299;  of  women,  299,  301;  col- 
leges, 300-303;  professional, 
303;  influence  of  travel,  304; 
hopeful  conditions,  304,  306; 
museums  and  art  galleries, 
304;  libraries,  305;  literature, 
305;  historical  societies,  305; 
taxes,  306;  promotive  associa- 
tions, 306;  Northern  aid,  306; 
federal  aid,  307;  standard. 
339. 

Electric  railroads  in  South,  227. 

Eliot,  C.  W.  On  South  and 
Union,  5 ;  on  education  in 
South,  288. 

Emancipation,  Southern  belief 
in  impoverishing  effect  of, 
86,  219. 

Eyre,  J.  E.,  and  negro  insurrec- 
tion, 98. 


INDEX 


Family  life,  negro,  116,  324. 

Farming.  See  Agriculture,  Cot- 
ton. 

Fen  wick's  Island,  inhabitants  of, 
107. 

Fernandina  as  port,  229. 

Fertilizing  in  cotton  culture, 
253. 

Fifteenth  Amendment.  Reason 
for,  175,  376;  present  South 
and,  345.  See  also  Suffrage. 

Fisheries,  Southern,  225. 

Fisk  University,  founding  of, 
309. 

Fitzgerald,  Ga.  Northern  com- 
munity, 49 ;  Negroes  excluded, 
167,  358. 

Flaxseed,  Southern  crop,  251. 

Fleming,  W.  H.,  on  remedy  of 
race  problem,  342,  345. 

Florida.  And  immigration,  52; 
leasing  of  convicts,  201  ; 
comparative  statistics,  397- 
417. 

Forests,  Southern  wealth,  22; 
221-223;  lumbering  and  ad- 
vancement of  Mountaineers, 
36;  lumbering  and  Poor 
Whites,  45;  efforts  for  forest 
reserve,  223;  naval  stores, 
223. 

Fourteenth  Amendemnt,  en- 
forcement of,  and  race  prob- 
lem, 347. 

Freedmen's  Bureau  and  negro 
education,  309. 

Frontier  life  of  Southern  Moun- 
taineers, 23,  33,  37. 


G 

Gadsden,  on  South  and  immi- 
gration, 53. 

Gallagher  peonage  case,  280. 

Galveston.  As  port,  22,  233; 
rivalry  with  New  Orleans,  228; 
lecture  courses,  305. 

Gambling,  negro,  189. 

Garner,  J.  W.  On  agitation  of 
race  question,  341;  on  legisla- 
tive remedy  of  problem,  381; 
on  negro  education  and  crime, 
387. 

General  Education  Board,  and 
Southern  education,  300,  306, 
307,  390;  and  negro  schools, 
322. 

Georgia.  Loss  of  natives,  47; 
valuations,  238;  rural  police, 
384;  comparative  statistics, 
397-417. 

Georgia,  University  of,  standing 
of,  302. 

Ginning  of  cotton,  259,  274. 

Glenn,  G.  R.,  on  negro  capabil- 
ity, 326. 

Goldsboro,  Fla.,  negro  commun- 
ity at,  142. 

Gonzales,  N.  G.,  murder  of,  185. 

Grady,  H.  W.  On  race  problem, 
69,  151;  on  Lincoln,  85;  on 
faithfulness  of  slaves  in  war 
time,  139;  on  race  separation, 
356. 

Graham,  Jeffrey,  case  of  de- 
scendants of,  156. 

Graves,  J.  T.  On  negro  ad- 
vancement, 140,  345,  368,  376; 
on  negro  segregation,  355;  on 


INDEX 


terrorizing  Negroes,  359;  on 
legal  terror,  364. 

Greenville,  Miss.,  as  trade  cen- 
ter, 26. 

Griffin,  A.  P.  C.,  bibliographies 
of,  on  negro  question,  8. 


Hammond,  Judge,  on  white  du- 
ties in  race  problem,  392. 

Hampton,  Wade,  on  coopera- 
tion with  Negroes,  388. 

Hampton  Institute.  Opposi- 
tion, 317;  influence,  319;  justi- 
fication, 333;  basis  of  success, 
334;  conferences,  389. 

Hardy,  J.  C.,  on  training  of  cot- 
ton laborers,  274. 

Harris,  J.  C.,  as  writer,  305. 

Hay,  comparative  value  of 
Southern  crop  of,  241,  251. 

Hayti,  Negroes  in,  98. 

Health.  Southern,  25;  negro 
death-rate,  107-110;  mulatto, 
111. 

Helms,  Glenny,  peonage  case, 
284. 

Hermitage  plantation,  254. 

Hill,  W.  B.,  and  negro  develop- 
ment, 179. 

Hill  Billies,  name  for  Poor  Whites, 
38. 

Historical  societies,  Southern, 
305. 

History.  Southern  attitude,  80- 
90;  separate,  of  antebellum 
South,  80;  Southern  adher- 
ence to  traditional  views,  81; 
Cavalier  myth,  81 ;  belief  in  an- 


tebellum prosperity,  82;  and  in 
advantages  of  slavery  to  Ne- 
groes, 83;  present  attitude 
towards  Civil  War,  84-85,  88; 
towards  Reconstruction,  85-88 ; 
towards  post-Reconstruction 
times,  89,  218. 

Hoffman,  F.  L.  "Race  traits," 
10;  on  negro  death-rate,  107- 
108;  on  negro  physical  infer- 
iority, 132 

Home  life.    See  Family  life. 

Horseback  riding  in  South,  23. 

Hotels.  Race  separation  in 
South,  170;  improvement  of 
Southern,  227. 

Houses.  Of  Mountaineers,  34, 
36;  of  Poor  Whites,  43;  negro 
farm,  115,  254-256. 

Houston,  progress,  29. 

Howell,  Clark.  Gubernational 
campaign,  173;  on  progress  of 
South,  247,  248. 


Idaho,  comparative  statistics  of, 
397-417. 

Illinois,  comparative  statistics 
of,  399-417. 

Illiteracy.  Comparative  South- 
ern, 237,  292;  negro,  293,  320; 
decreasing,  293-294.  See  also 
Education. 

Immigration,  foreign.  And 
South,  50-58;  foreign  popula- 
tion of  South,  50;  and  anto- 
tallum  South,  51;  Southern 
encouragement,  51 :  South  Car- 
olina's experiment,  52,  50; 


INDEX 


foreign  groups  in  South,  53, 
56-57;  obstacles,  54-56;  and 
negro  question,  57;  and  cotton 
laborers,  264,  267;  not  remedy 
of  race  problem,  353;  and  pe- 
onage, 353;  and  crude  labor, 
374;  comparative  statistics  of 
foreign  population,  North  and 
South,  398-309. 

Indian  question,  76. 

Indian  Territory,  comparative 
statistics  of,  399-417. 

Indiana.  Colonization  of  Ne- 
groes in,  112;  comparative 
statistics,  397-417. 

Indianapolis.  Negro  question, 
112;  negro  schools,  313. 

Indianola,  Miss.,  incident  of  ne- 
gro postmistress  in,  171. 

Industrial  education  of  Negro. 
Hampton  and  Tuskegee,  319; 
public,  332;  versus  academic, 
332-334;  dangers,  334. 

Industry.  See  Agriculture,  Bus- 
iness, Commerce,  Forests,  La- 
bor, Manufactures,  Mining, 
Wealth. 

Insane,  comparative  statistics 
of,  North  and  South,  406-407. 

Iowa,  comparative,  statistics  of, 
397-417. 

Iron,  Southern  mining  and  man- 
ufacture of,  25,  224. 

Italians  in  South,  53,  56-57,  272, 
281. 


Jackson,  Miss.,  capitol  at,  27. 
Jacksonville  as  port,  22. 


Jamaica,  Negroes  in,  98. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  and  coloniza- 
tion of  Negroes,  350. 

Jim  Crow  cars,  168-171. 

Johnson,  E.  A.,  on  race  antagon- 
ism, 160. 

Jones,  T.  G.,  and  peonage,  282, 
286. 

Jones,  Tom,  Negro,  lynched,  213. 

Jonesville,  La.,  Dayton  planta- 
tion near,  255. 

Jury  duty,  Negroes  and,  203. 

Juvenile  criminals  in  South,  202; 
comparative  statistics  of  de- 
linquents, 406-407;  of  reform 
schools,  416-417. 

K 

Kansas.  Negro  migration,  112; 
comparative  statistics,  395- 
415. 

Kelsey,  Carl.  "  Negro  Farmer,  " 
17;  on  negro  immorality,  134, 
135. 

Kentucky.  Liquor  manufacture, 
225;  problem  of  negro  educa- 
tion, 307;  taxation  for  negro 
schools,  329;  comparative  sta- 
tistics, 397-417. 

Kowaliga,  Ala.,  negro  commun- 
ity at,  141. 

Ku-Klux  Klan,  evil  of,  87. 


Labor.  Of  Poor  Whites,  45;  in 
cotton  mills,  45,  275;  foreign 
and  negro,  55,  57;  white,  on 
cotton  plantations,  57,255,262, 


430 


INDEX 


264,  267;  negro,  in  North,  100; 
negro,  in  South,  120-131;  Ne- 
groes and  gospel  of  work,  120; 
Negroes  and  unskilled,  120; 
white  control  of  negro,  121; 
willingness  of  blacks,  121-124; 
negro  managers,  123;  negro 
domestic  servants,  124-127; 
blacks  as  farm  laborers,  127; 
skilled  negro,  127,  225,  370; 
unions  and  negro,  128,  370; 
whipping  on  plantations,  194; 
manufacture  of  iron,  224;  in- 
fluence of  Southern,  on  com- 
parative wealth,  232,  235,  246, 
247, 277 ;  system  on  cotton  plan- 
tation, 254,  257,  261;  cotton 
hands,  261-277;  character,  on 
cotton  plantation,  263;  child, 
in  South,  264;  cotton  renters, 
croppers,  and  wage  hands, 
265-266;  instability  of  negro, 
266;  negro  monopoly  of  cotton 
culture,  267,  277;  necessity  of 
training  of  cotton  hands,  267, 
273,  274;  negro  complaints, 
267;  advance  system  and  its  ! 
effect,  268-273;  peonage  in 
South,  278-287;  postbellum 
vagrant  laws,  279;  Negroes  as 
peasants,  374-376;  immigra- 
tion and  crude,  374 ;  compara- 
tive statistics  of  manufactur- 
ing wages,  North  and  South, 
404-405.  See  also  Immigra- 
tion. 

Lake  Charles,  La.,  Northerners 
at,  48. 

Lake  City,  S.  0.,  attack  on  ne- 
gro postmaster  at,  171. 


Lamar,  L.  Q.  C.,  on  cooperation 
with  Negroes,  388. 

Land,  negro  ownership  of,  and 
uplift,  144,  372-374. 

Lanier,  Sidney,  as  writer,  305. 

Lawyers,  negro,  130,  335. 

Lead  in  South,  224. 

Leadership  in  South.  Antebel- 
lum, 59;  postwar  changes,  60- 
62;  social,  62;  business,  62;  po- 
litical, 63;  homogeneity,  63; 
tone,  64;  Negroes  and  negro 
leaders,  130,  379. 

Leasing  of  convicts  in  South, 
201,  286. 

Lee,  S.  D.,  on  negro  labor,  121. 

Legislation  as  remedy  of  race 
problem,  381-385. 

Leland  University,  founding  of, 
309. 

Leonard,  John,  negro  settlement 
started  by,  141. 

Liberia,  failure  of,  96-97,  350. 

Libraries  in  South,  305. 

Lien  loans  on  cotton  plantations, 
268. 

Lily  white  Republicans,  173. 

Lincoln,  Abraham.  Minor's 
"  Real  Lincoln,  "85;  Grady  on, 
85;  and  colonization  of  Ne- 
groes, 350. 

Liquor.    See  Drink. 

Literature.  Southern,  305;  ne- 
gro, 325. 

Little  River,  plantations  on,  255. 

Lockhart,  Texas,  peonage  case, 
280. 

London,  murders  in,  184. 

Louisiana.  Immigration,  52,  56, 
f>7;  school  system,  2l»2;  illiter- 


iol 


INDEX 


acy,  293;  negro  illiteracy,  294; 
rural  schools,  299;  compara- 
tive statistics,  397-417. 

Louisville,  tobacco  manufacture 
in,  225;  schools,  296. 

Louisville  Courier- Journal.  On 
South  and  immigration,  48. 

Lower  South,  extent,  20.  See  also 
South. 

Lumber.    See  Forests. 

Lynching.  Cutler's  researches, 
208;  origin  and  early  practice, 
208;  proportion,  North  and 
South,  209,  210;  not  confined 
to  cases  of  rape,  209,  362; 
methods  of  lynchers,  210;  mis- 
takes, 211 ;  conduct  of  officials, 
211;  and  of  militia,  212;  justi- 
fied, 212;  reasons  for  practice, 
race  hostility,  213-215;  sug- 
gestion of  legalization,  215; 
as  remedy  for  race  problem, 
361-364;  reduction,  364. 

M 

McDonogh,  John,  educational 
bequest  by,  289. 

McKinley,  William,  price  of 
wheat  and  election  of,  261. 

Macon  Telegraph  on  Northern 
criticism,  243. 

Madison,  Ga.,  popular  hysteria 
in,  on  negro  question,  164. 

Magic,  negro  belief  in,  137. 

Malaria  in  South,  25. 

Manufacturers'  Record.  On  im- 
migration, 54;  on  Southern 
wealth,  242,  243 ;  on  wealth  in 
cotton,  250;  opposition  to 


Northern  educational  aid,  307; 
on  Atlanta  riots,  390. 

Manufactures  of  South,  24,  224- 
225;  cheap  power,  26,  225;  cot- 
ton, 45,  274-276;  importation 
of  aliens,  52;  comparative  sta- 
tistics, North  and  South,  237, 
238,  276,  404-405. 

Marriage.    See  Miscegenation. 

Maryland.  And  South,  20;  prob- 
lem of  negro  education,  307, 
329;  comparative  statistics, 
397-417. 

Massachusetts  and  school  tax, 
329. 

Mean  Whites,  name  for  Poor 
Whites,  38. 

Medicine.  Negro  physicians, 
129,  335;  schools  in  South,  303. 

Memphis,  progress,  242. 

Methodist  Church.  Negro,  117; 
educational  commission  of 
Southern,  300. 

Michigan,  comparative  statis- 
tics of,  397-417. 

Military  service,  negro,  129. 

Militia  and  lynchings,  212. 

Miller,  Kelly.  On  Dixon,  10;  as 
writer,  15,  325;  on  race  antag- 
onism, 160;  on  negro  advance- 
ment, 368,  371. 

Mining  in  South,  24,  224. 

Minnesota,  comparative  statis- 
tics of,  397-417. 

Minor,  C.  L.  C.  On  Negroes  un- 
der slavery,  83;  "Real  Lin- 
coln, "  85. 

Miscegenation,  151-154;  and 
principle  of  social  inequality, 
154,  156;  prohibition  of  mar- 


INDEX 


riage,  155;  white  exclusion  of 
mulattoes,  156;  remedy,  157; 
and  calamity  of  amalgama- 
tion, 157. 

Mississippi.  Postbellum  vagrant 
laws,  168;  negro  voters,  176; 
valuations,  238;  illiteracy,  294, 
school  statistics,  295;  lynch- 
ings,  363;  comparative  statis- 
tics, 395-415. 

Missouri.  And  South,  20;  illiter- 
acy, 292;  comparative  statis- 
tics, 397-417. 

Mitchell,  S.  C.,  and  negro  devel- 
opment, 179,  345. 

Mitchell  Co.,  N.  C.,  Negroes  ex- 
cluded from,  166. 

Mobile.  As  port,  22,  229;  prog- 
ress, 28. 

Monroe,  La.,  as  trade  center,  26. 

Montana,  comparative  statis- 
tics of,  397-417. 

Montgomery,  founder  of  negro 
community,  141. 

Montgomery,  Ala.,  progress,  29. 

Morals.  Mountaineer,  35;  poor 
white,  43;  negro,  108-109,  134- 
137;  mulatto,  112;  miscegena- 
tion, 151-157.  See  also  Crime. 

Morristown,  Tenn.,  treatment  of 
Negroes  in,  167. 

Mound  Bayou,  Miss.,  negro  com- 
munity at,  141. 

Mt.  Moriah,  Ala.,  school  at, 
297. 

Mountaineers,  Southern,  as  fron- 
tiersmen, 23,  33,  37;  condi- 
tions, 30-38;  uniqueness,  30; 
region,  31;  descent,  31-33; 
self-sustenance,  32;  lowest 


type,  "  boomer, "  33-35;  higher 
type,  35;  advancement,  35- 
38;  crime,  37;  and  negro  ques- 
tion, 38;  as  laborers  in  cotton 
mills,  275;  Northern  aid  for 
education,  306. 

Mulattoes.  And  negro  "race 
traits,"  102;  proportion,  110- 
111;  physique,  111;  character, 
112;  social  position,  112,  156, 
339 ;  and  private  negro  schools, 
316;  literature,  325. 

Murders.  Proportion  in  South, 
184;  varieties,  185;  of  Negroes 
by  Whites,  195-196;  conduct 
of  trials,  198;  lynchings  for, 
209,  362. 

Murphy,  E.  G.  "Present 
South,"  13;  on  democratic  de- 
velopment, 65;  on  race  prob- 
lem, 69,  79,  345;  on  South  and 
Northern  criticism,  73;  on  sur- 
vival of  Negroes,  109;  on  race 
association,  150;  and  negro  de- 
velopment, 179;  on  Poor 
Whites,  293;  on  Negro  aca- 
demic training,  331. 

Museums,  Southern,  304. 

N 

Nashua,  N.  H.,  manufacturing 
output  of,  276. 

National  banks,  comparative 
statistics  of,  North  and  South, 
402-403.  Sec  a/so  Banking. 

Naval  stores,  Southern,  223. 

Nebraska.  Illiteracy,  202;  com- 
parative statistics,  397-117. 

"  Negro  a  Beast,  "11. 


INDEX 


Negroes.  Writers,  14-17,  325; 
periodicals,  18;  of  Sea  Islands, 
22, 107, 110, 137,  142;  effect  of 
urban  life,  27,  114;  and  Moun- 
taineers, 38;  and  foreign  im- 
migration, 55,  57;  tempera- 
ment of  Northern  and  South- 
ern, 74;  present  attitude  of 
North  on  question,  75;  North- 
ern responsibility  and  interest 
in  question,  75-79;  persistence 
of  question,  77;  necessity  of 
solution,  78;  Southern  belief 
in  benefits  of  slavery,  83,  341; 
character,  91-105;  population, 
91,  106,  397-399;  names  for, 
91;  white  generalizations  on, 
92;  character  and  capabil- 
ity in  Africa,  94-96;  failure 
of  Liberia,  96-97,  350;  condi- 
tions in  West  Indies,  97-99; 
in  North,  99-101;  question  of 
inferiority,  101-105,  339;  "race 
traits,"  101,  110;  lack  of  op- 
portunity, 103;  and  white 
standards,  103;  arrested  devel- 
opment, 104,  326;  irresponsi- 
bility, 104;  life,  106-119;  diffu- 
sion, 106;  ruralness,  107;  sur- 
vival and  death-rate,  107-110; 
divergent  types,  110;  propor- 
tion and  character  of  mulat- 
toes,  110-112;  Northward 
drift,  112,  354;  white  ignor- 
ance of  negro  life,  114,  124, 
340,  391;  investigations  of 
life,  114;  rural  houses,  115; 
family  life,  116,  324;  amuse- 
ments, 116;  religious  life,  117, 
380;  secret  societies,  118;  as 


managers,  123;  and  military 
service,  129;  as  business  and 
professional  men,  129-130, 
335;  attitude  towards  leaders, 
130,  379;  conferences,  131, 
389;  question  of  advance- 
ment, 132-148;  physical  struc- 
ture and  inferiority,  132-134; 
morality,  134-137;  not  retro- 
grading, 137,  143;  morals  un- 
der slavery,  138;  faithfulness 
during  Civil  War,  139;  evi- 
dences of  advancement,  139- 
142;  communities,  141;  pro- 
portion of  uplift,  143, 146,  339, 
368-369;  accumulation  of 
property,  143-148;  savings, 
143,  376;  real  estate,  144-145, 
372-374;  and  tax-paying,  147; 
race  association,  149-165 ; 
problem  of  association,  149- 
151;  miscegenation,  151-157; 
remedy  for  it,  157;  position  of 
mulattoes,  156,  339;  evil  of 
amalgamation,  157,  349; 
growth  of  race  antagonism, 
158-161,  216,  340,  389;  white 
fear  of  negro  domination,  160, 
172;  Negroes  on  race  antago- 
nism, 160;  basis  of  antagonism, 
161 ;  question  of  social  equality, 
162-165,  340;  race  separation, 
166-180,  356-358;  exclusion 
from  settlements,  166;  increas- 
ing segregation,  167;  quar- 
ters in  cities,  167;  church  sep- 
aration, 167;  postbellum  vag- 
rant laws,  168,  279;  discrim- 
ination in  travel,  168-171 ;  and 
public  positions,  171-174,  377; 


IXDEX 


disf  ranchisement,  174-178, 
347-348,  376-377;  white  sup- 
pression of  development,  178- 
180,  370-371;  illustrations  of 
white  antagonism,  181-183; 
rough  language  by  Whites, 
194;  and  present  vagrant  laws, 
200;  and  jury  duty,  203;  testi- 
mony, 203;  race  riots,  205-207; 
thriftlessness,  271;  and  news- 
papers, 324;  summary  of  race 
problem,  338-341 ;  race  separa- 
tion and  principle  of  equality, 
339,  344;  perpetual  inferiority 
and  subjection,  339,  340,  343, 
344;  agitation  against,  341; 
postulates  as  to  possible  rem- 
edies of  race  problem,  343-346; 
wrong  remedies,  347-366;  no 
help  from  Congress,  347-348; 
nor  from  Northern  propa- 
ganda, 348;  nor  from  coloniza- 
tion 350-352;  nor  from  substi- 
tution of  white  laborers,  352- 
354;  nor  from  segregation, 
354-358;  terrorizing  as  remedy 
358-366;  material  and  politi- 
cal remedies,  367-377;  advan- 
tage to  Whites  hi  negro  uplift, 
371,  373;  as  peasant  class, 
374-376;  moral  remedies,  378- 
394;  influence  of  race  separa- 
tion on  uplift,  378-381,  388- 
391;  suggestion  of  socialistic 
control  over,  379;  need  of 
equitable  vagrant  laws,  383; 
special  courts,  383;  and  prohi- 
bition, 384;  necessity  of  dis- 
cussion of  race  problem,  380; 
essentials  of  remedy,  392-394; 


comparative  statistics  of  in- 
sane and  paupers,  North  and 
South,  406-407.  See  also  Cot- 
ton, Crime,  Education,  Labor, 
Lynching,  Peonage,  Whites. 

Nevada,  comparative  statistics 
of,  399-417. 

New  Hampshire,  comparative 
statistics  of,  399-417. 

New  Mexico,  comparative  sta- 
tistics of,  399-417. 

New  Orleans.  As  port,  22,  233; 
population  and  trade,  28;  for- 
eign population,  51;  negro 
population,  107;  negro  moral- 
ity, 108;  rivalry  with  Galves- 
ton,  228;  belt  line,  228;  prog- 
ress, 242;  McDonogh  bequest, 
289;  discontinuance  of  negro 
high  school,  315. 

New  York  City,  murders  in,  184. 

Newport  News  as  port,  229, 
233. 

Newspapers.    See  Press. 

Niagara  Movement,  389. 

Nixburg,  Ala.,  negro  community 
near,  141. 

No  'Count,  name  for  Poor 
Whites,  38. 

Norfolk,  Va.  As  port,  22,  229, 
233;  Mrs.  Douglass'  negro 
school,  309. 

Normal  schools  in  South.  Devel- 
opment, 292;  comparative  sta- 
tistics, 296,  416-417.  See  also 
Teachers. 

North.  Extent,  1;  Northerners 
in  South,  4S-50;  position  of 
Southerners  in,  4!l;  Southern 
suspicion,  71,  73,  <S1(;  Southern 


INDEX 


belief  in  hostility,  74;  present 
attitude  on  race  problem,  75; 
responsibility  and  interest  in 
problem,  75-79;  condition  of 
Negroes  in,  99-101;  negro 
drift,  112,  354;  crime,  183; 
idea  of  crime  in  South,  184; 
criminal  spirit  in,  and  in 
South,  197-199;  lynching  in, 
209,  210;  comparative  wealth 
(see  Wealth) ;  aid  for  Southern 
white  education,  306;  for  ne- 
gro education,  315-317,  322; 
and  solution  of  Southern  race 
problem,  345,  347-349,  391; 
comparative  statistics,  397- 
417. 

North  Carolina.  And  immigra- 
tion, 52;  and  Mecklenburg 
Declaration,  81;  early  negro 
suffrage,  175;  comparative  sta- 
tistics, 397-417. 

North  Carolina,  University  of. 
Founding,  290;  standing,  302. 

North  Dakota.  School  statis- 
tics, 295;  comparative  statis- 
tics, 397-417. 

Norwood,  T.  M.,  generalization 
by,  on  Negroes,  93. 

O 

Oak  Grove,  Ala.,  negro  school 
at,  312. 

Oats,  comparative  value  of 
crops  of,  241. 

Odum,  H.  W.,  negro  researches 
by,  114. 

Ogden,  R.  C.,  and  Southern  Edu- 
cation Board,  306,  390. 


Oklahoma .  And  South ,  20 ;  com- 
parative statistics  of,  397-417. 

Onancock,  Va.,  banishment  of 
Negroes  from,  206. 

Opelika,  Ala.,  public  buildings 
in,  27. 

Open-air  life  in  South,  23,  25. 

Oregon,  comparative  statistics 
of,  397-417. 

Outlook,  articles  in,  on  Southern 
question,  18. 


Pace,  J.  W.,  peonage  case,  282. 

Page,T.N.  "Negro,"  12;  on  edu- 
cational value  of  slavery,  83; 
on  failure  of  Negro,  101;  on 
negro  immorality,  134;  on 
race  antagonism,  150;  on  ne- 
gro capability,  326,  368;  on 
evils  of  negro  education,  327; 
on  white  dominance,  343;  on 
negro  court,  383;  on  mutual 
discussion  of  race  problem, 
391;  on  need  of  negro  uplift, 
392. 

Panama  Canal  and  Southern 
commerce,  22. 

Pardon  of  criminals  in  South, 
203. 

Paupers,  comparative  statistics 
of,  North  and  South,  406-407. 

Peabody  fund,  322. 

Peasant  class,  Negroes  as,  374- 
376. 

Penn  School  in  Sea  Islands, 
316. 

Pensacola  as  port,  22,  229. 

Pensions,  Southern  income,  234. 


436 


INDEX 


Peonage.  And  immigration,  56, 
353;  in  South,  278-287;  rise, 
278;  federal  law  against,  278; 
principle,  279;  development  in 
cotton  culture,  279;  of  Whites, 
280-281;  restraint  of  move- 
ments of  Negroes,  281-282;  of 
Negroes  under  cover  of  laws, 
282-283,  365;  illustrations, 
283-285;  federal  prosecutions, 
.  285;  Southern  approval,  286; 
federal  investigation,  286;  and 
leasing  of  convicts,  286;  and 
negro  shiftlessness,  287. 

Percy,  Leroy.  On  remedy  of 
race  problem,  343,  345;  on  ne- 
gro education,  387. 

Pests,  Southern,  25. 

Petroleum  in  South,  225. 

Philadelphia,  negro  mortality  in, 
107. 

Phosphates  in  South,  225. 

Physical  conditions  of  South,  20- 
29;  swamps,  221. 

Physicians,  negro,  129,  335. 

Physique,  negro,  and  inferiority, 
132-134. 

Plantation.  Application  of  term, 
253-255;  present  types,  255- 
256.  See  also  Agriculture, 
Cotton. 

"  Plow "  division  of  farms, 
264. 

Poe,  E.  A.,  as  Southern  writer, 
305. 

Police.  Treatment  of  Negroes, 
196;  need  of  rural,  211,  382, 
384. 

Politics.  Southern  leadership. 
63;  cause  an<l  eHect  of  Solid 


South,  72,  173,  174;  coloniza- 
tion of  Negroes  in  Indiana, 
112;  Negroes  and  public  posi- 
tions, 171-174,  377;  Negroes 
and  Republican  party  in 
South,  173;  negro  suffrage, 
174-178,  347-348,  376-377. 

Poor  Whites.  Traditional  home, 
21;  conditions,  38-47;  names 
for,  38;  diffusion,  38;  antebel- 
lum isolation,  38-41;  and  Civil 
War,  40;  as  farmers,  41, 45, 46; 
advancement,  41-47;  morals, 
43;  education,  44,  293;  as  wage 
earners,  44-45;  in  cotton  mills, 
45,  275;  northward  and  west- 
ward drift,  46;  term  a  misnom- 
er, 47;  turbulence,  64;  and 
Southern  problem,  344;  need 
of  uplift,  375. 

Population.  Southern  urban, 
28;  of  South,  30;  Southern,  of 
Northern  birth,  48;  foreign,  in 
South,  50;  negro,  91,  106;  ne- 
gro death-rate,  107-110; 
Southern  agricultural,  221 ; 
comparative  statistics,  North 
and  South,  397-399. 

Ports  of  the  South,  22,  28,  228- 
229,  233. 

Portsmouth,  Va.,  as  port,  229, 
233. 

Post-office.  Negro  employees, 
171,  172;  need  of  Postal  Sav- 
ings Banks  in  South,  376. 

Potatoes,  comparative  value  of 
crop  of,  241. 

Press,  Southern.  Character,  70; 
negro  journalists,  130,  324; 
Nrgrors  and  newspapers,  324. 


43? 


INDEX 


Price.     Of  farm  lands,  220;  of 

cotton,  252. 
Prisons  in  South,  201;  reform, 

202;  comparative  statistics  of 

prisoners,  406-407 
Professions.     Negroes   in,    129, 

335;  schools  in  South,  292,  303. 
Prohibition  as  remedy  of  race 

problem,  384. 
Property.    See  Land,  Taxation, 

Wealth. 
Protestant     Episcopal    Church 

and  race  separation,  167. 
Pulaski  Co.,  Ga.,  increasing  ne- 
gro population  of,  167. 
Pullman  Car  Co.  and  Jim  Crow 

cars,  169. 

R 

Race.  See  Negroes,  Remedies, 
Whites. 

Railroads  of  South.  Race  sep- 
aration, 168-171;  develop- 
ment, 226-227;  New  Orleans 
belt  road,  228;  control,  229; 
comparative  mileage  of  seced- 
ing states,  237;  of  whole 
South,  248. 

Rape,  negro,  of  white  women, 
191-193;  early  examples,  208; 
lynching  not  confined  to,  209, 
362;  not  on  increase,  209;  and 
justification  of  lynching,  213, 
214. 

Real  estate,  negro,  144-145. 

Reclamation  of  Southern 
swamps,  221. 

Reconstruction.  Present  South- 
ern attitude,  85-88;  Ku-Klux, 


87;  and  race  antagonism,  159; 
negro  suffrage,  175,  376;  edu- 
cational measures,  292,  310. 

Red  Necks,  name  for  Poor 
Whites,  38. 

Reed,  J.  C.  On  Dixon,  9;  on  Ne- 
groes under  slavery,  83;  on 
Ku-Klux,  87;  on  negro  segre- 
gation, 355. 

Religion.  Of  Mountaineers,  35; 
of  Negroes  in  Africa,  94;  ne- 
gro, in  South,  117,  129;  ques- 
tion of  negro  paganism,  137; 
race  separation,  167;  training 
of  Southern  ministers,  303; 
Church  and  race  problem,  380. 

Remedies  of  race  problem. 
Summary  of  problem,  338- 
340;  essential  conditions,  340; 
types  of  altitude  of  Southern 
Whites,  340-343;  postulates, 
343-345;  division  of  Whites, 
345-346,  391;  wrong,  347-366; 
no  Congressional  interference, 
347-348;  no  Northern  private 
propaganda,  348;  no  amalga- 
mation, 349;  no  colonization, 
350-352;  no  substitutes  for  ne- 
gro laborers,  352-354;  no  seg- 
regation, 354-356;  possibility 
of  race  separation,  356-358; 
terrorizing,  358-366;  legalized 
terror,  364;  material,  367-376; 
possibility  and  permission  of 
general  negro  uplift,  367-372; 
land-buying  by  Negroes,  372- 
374;  Negroes  as  peasants,  374- 
376;  aids  for  thrift,  376;  polit- 
ical, 376-377;  moral,  378-394; 
influence  of  race  separation, 


438 


IXDEX 


378-381;  character  of  negro 
leaders,  379;  benevolent  state 
socialism,  379;  influence  of 
Church,  380;  legislative  and 
judicial,  381-385;  negro  edu- 
cation, 385-388;  need  of  race 
cooperation  and  discussion, 
388-391 ;  last  analysis  of  prob- 
lem, 392-394;  white  duties, 
392;  patience,  392-394. 

Renters  on  cotton  plantations, 
256,  266. 

Restaurants,  race  separation  in, 
in  South,  170. 

Rhett,  Barnwell,  Northern  edu- 
cation of,  290. 

Rice  as  Southern  crop,  251. 

Richmond.  Race  separation, 
167;  tobacco  manufacture, 
225;  progress,  242. 

Richmond  Times  Despatch  on 
immigration,  54. 

"  Riders ''  on  cotton  plantations, 
258,  263. 

Riots,  race,  205-208,  390. 

Roads,  Southern,  227. 

Roosevelt,  Theodore.  Booker 
Washington  incident,  162 ;  and 
appointment  of  Negroes,  171, 
174;  rewards  faithful  state 
official,  211  ;  on  lynchings, 
363. 

Rural  life.  Open-air  life,  23,  25; 
preponderance  in  South,  27-29; 
negro  propensity,  107 ;  police, 
221,  382,  384;  schools,  296- 
299,  311-313;  relative  lack  of 
progress,  242.  See  also  Agri- 
culture. 

Ruaaell,  C.  W.,  on  peonage,  286. 


St.  Louis,  schools  in,  2%. 

Salisbury,  N.  C.,  lynching  in, 
210. 

Sand  Killers,  name  for  Poor 
Whites,  38. 

Santo  Domingo,  Negroes  in,  99. 

Savannah  as  port,  22,  28,  229. 

Savings  banks,  need  of,  in  South, 
376. 

Saxons,  Taine  on,  102. 

Sea  Islands,  22;  Negroes  of,  107, 
110,  137,  142;  trucking,  220; 
cotton,  seed  trust,  252;  gin- 
ning and  bagging  of  cotton, 
259;  war-time  negro  schools, 
309;  present  education,  316. 

Secession,  present  Southern  at- 
titude toward,  84. 

Secondary  education.  Develop- 
ment of  Southern,  292,  299; 
comparative  statistics,  North 
and  South,  296,  412-413;  ne- 
gro, 314;  hostility  to  negro, 
319,  335. 

Secret  societies,  negro,  118. 

Shannon,  A.  H.  "  Racial  Integ- 
rity,"  12;  on  mulattoes,  111. 

Shipp,  J.  F.,  and  lynching,  212. 

Shreveport.  Public  buildings, 
27;  Italians  at,  57. 

Shufeldt,  R.  W.,  "  Negro  a  Men- 
ace, "8. 

Sinclair,  W.  A.  "Aftermath  of 
Slavery,"  15;  as  writer,  325. 

Slater  fund,  322. 

Slavery.  Effect  on  South,  2 ;  and 
Southern  attitude  towards 
history,  80;  traditional  belief 


439 


TXDEX 


in  prosperity  under,  82,  218; 
and  in  benefit  to  Negro,  83, 
341;  domestic  servants,  126; 
negro  morals  under,  138;  per- 
sonal race  association  under, 
158;  chattel,  and  leasing  of 
convicts,  201;  in  Philippines, 
279 ;  and  education  of  Negroes, 
308.  See  also  Peonage. 

Smith,  Hoke.  Gubernatorial 
campaign,  173;  on  negro  edu- 
cation, 329;  on  white  control 
over  Negroes,  341. 

Smith,  W.  B.  " Color  Line, "  13; 
on  South  and  outside  public 
opinion,  77;  on  negro  inferior- 
ity, 133;  apology  for  lynching, 
363. 

Social  life  in  South.  Open-air, 
23;  of  Northerners,  49;  leader- 
ship, 59-62;  character,  62; 
crudeness  of  behavior,  64; 
democratic  uplift,  65;  of  Ne- 
groes in  North,  100;  miscege- 
nation and  social  inequality  of 
Negroes,  154,  156;  exclusion  of 
mulattoes,  156;  question  of  ne- 
gro equality,  162-165,  340; 
race  equality  and  negro  offi- 
cials, 171;  negro  homes,  324. 

Socialism  and  race  problem,  379. 

Solid  South,  cause  and  effect  of, 
72. 

South.  As  part  of  Union,  1-3; 
individuality,  2,  30;  author's 
preparation  for  judging,  3-6; 
materials  on,  7-19;  physical 
conditions,  20-29;  extent,  20; 
physical  divisions,  20-22; 
Black  Belt,  21;  forests,  22; 


climate,  24;  mining,  24;  pests, 
25;  health,  25;  architecture, 
26,  304;  rural  preponderance, 
27-29;  comparative  statistics, 
397-417.  See  also  Agriculture, 
Cities,  Civil  War,  Commerce, 
Cotton,  Crime,  Education, 
History,  Immigration,  Labor, 
Leadership,  Manufactures,  Ne- 
groes, Peonage,  Politics,  Popu- 
lation, Reconstruction,  Reme- 
dies, Slavery,  Social  life, 
Wealth,  Whites. 

South  Atlantic  Monthly  and  dis- 
cussion of  race  problem,  390. 

South  Carolina.  Loss  of  natives, 
47;  immigration  experiment, 
52,  56;  postbellum  vagrant 
laws,  168;  murders  in,  184; 
valuations,  238;  cotton  manu- 
factures, 275,  276;  peonage  in, 
284;  illiteracy,  293;  school  sta- 
tistics, 295;  rural  police,  384; 
comparative  statistics,  397- 
417. 

South  Dakota,  comparative  sta- 
tistics of,  397-417. 

Southern  Education  Association 
and  negro  education,  327. 

Southern  Education  Board,  300, 
306,  390. 

"  Southern  South, "  meaning  of 
term,  6. 

Spartanburg,  water  -  power  in, 
26. 

Spencer,  Samuel,  and  immigra- 
tion, 52. 

Springfield,  111.,  race  riot  in,  207. 

Springfield,  Ohio,  race  riot  in, 
207. 


440 


TXDEX 


Statistical  Abstract,  data  from, 
235, 243. 

Steamboat,  race  separation  on 
Southern,  169. 

Stock,  Southern,  251. 

Stone,  A.  H.  Studies  of  negro 
question,  17;  on  foreign  and 
negro  cotton  hands,  58;  on  ne- 
gro accumulation  of  property, 
146;  on  lien  loans,  268. 

Stone  and  Webster,  and  electric 
power  and  transportation,  227. 

Straight  University,  founding  of, 
309. 

Street  railways.  Race  separa- 
tion on  Southern,  170;  inter- 
urban  trolleys,  227. 

Suffrage.  Northern  distrust  of 
negro,  100;  effect  of  disfran- 
chisement  on  negro  leadership, 
131 ;  negro,  174-175;  negro  dis- 
franchisement,  175-177,  345; 
reason  for  disfranchisement, 
178;  enforcement  of  Four- 
teenth Amendment,  347;  fed- 
eral control  of  elections,  348. 

Sugar,  Southern  crop  of,  251. 

Sugar  beets,  Southern  crop  of, 
251. 

Sulphur  in  South,  225. 

Sulu  Archipelago,  slavery  in, 
279. 

Sunny  Side.  Italian  labor  at, 
57;  plantation,  256;  alleged 
peonage  case,  281. 

Superstitions,  negro,  138. 

Swamps,  Southern,  25;  reclama- 
tion of,  221. 

Syracuse,  Ohio,  Negroes  exclud- 
ed from,  166. 


Taine,  H.  A.,  on  Saxons,  102. 

Talassee,  school  a*.  297. 

Talladega,  school  at,  389. 

Tar  Heels,  name  for  Poor  Whites, 
38. 

Taxation.  Negroes  and,  147, 
330 ;  assessment  valuations 
as  comparison  of  Southern 
wealth,  235;  comparative  val- 
uations of  seceding  states,  236; 
of  whole  South,  239-241,  244, 
248,  400-401;  on  basis  of 
white  population,  246;  ante- 
and  post-bellum  valuation  in 
South,  237;  school,  in  South, 
295,  306;  burden  of,  for  negro 
schools,  328-331. 

Teachers,  Southern.  Of  rural 
white  schools,  298;  of  negro 
schools,  310,  314,  320;  boy- 
cott of  Northern,  of  negro 
schools,  316;  need  of  white,  for 
colored  schools,  385-387 ;  com- 
parative statistics,  North  and 
South,  408-417. 

Temperament  of  Southern 
Whites,  66-79;  difficulty  in 
determining,  66;  emotional- 
ism, 66,  164;  influence  of  race 
problem,  67-69,  74;  diversity 
on  problem,  69-70;  impatience 
of  dissent,  70,  72,  390;  sus- 
picion of  Northerners,  71,  73, 
74,  89;  attitude  towards  crit- 
icism, 71-73,  243;  exaggera- 
tion, 73;  of  Negroes,  74; 
Whites,  and  outside  interest  in 
race  problem,  75-79;  attitude 


441 


TXDEX 


towards  history,  80-90,  218; 
veneration  for  ancestors,  81. 

Tennessee.  School  statistics, 
295;  comparative  statistics, 
397-417. 

Tensas  River,  plantations  on, 
255. 

Testimony,  negro,  203. 

Texas.  Urban  population,  29; 
immigration  from  other  states, 
47;  foreign  settlement,  53; 
value  of  farms,  238;  school 
statistics,  248,  295,  306;  com- 
parative statistics,  397-417. 

Texas,  University  of,  standing 
of,  302. 

Theft,  Negroes  and,  186. 

Thomas,  William  Hannibal. 
"  American  Negro, "  15;  on  ne- 
gro morals,  134. 

Thomas,  William  Holcombe. 
On  race  association,  150;  on 
homicides,  197. 

Thorsby,  Ala.,  Northern  com- 
munity at,  49. 

Tillman,  B.  R.  As  political 
leader,  63;  anti-negro  general- 
izations, 93;  on  newly  import- 
ed slaves,  110;  attitude  on  ne- 
gro disfranchisement,  177;  on 
lynching,  213;  and  race  prob- 
lem, 345,  359. 

Tillman,  J.  H.,  killing  of  Gon- 
zales  by,  185. 

Tobacco.  Southern  manufac- 
ture, 224;  comparative  value 
of  crop,  241. 

Toombs,  Robert,  on  South  under 
slavery,  82. 

Trade.   See  Commerce. 


Transportation.  Race  separa- 
tion in  South,  168-171;  South- 
ern conditions,  226-230. 

Trucking  in  South,  24,  220,  251. 

Trudics  peonage  case,  280., 

Tulane  University,  standing  of, 
300,  307. 

Turner,  H.  M.,  on  negro  segrega- 
tion, 355. 

Turner  peonage  case,  284,  365. 

Turpentine,  Southern  industry, 
223. 

Tuskegee  Institute.  Conferences, 
131,  389;  influence,  319;  num- 
ber of  students,  332;  opposi- 
tion, 332;  basis  of  success,  334. 

U 

Union,  South  and,  1,  5. 
Urban  life.    See  Cities. 
Utah,  comparative  statistics  of, 
397-417. 


Vagrant  laws,  Southern.  Post- 
bellum,  168,  279;  present,  200; 
need  of  equitable,  383. 

Valdese,  N.  C.,  Italians  at,  57. 

Valdosta,  Ga.,  negro  teachers  in, 
314. 

Vardaman,  J.  K.  As  political 
leader,  63;  abuse  of  Negro, 
72,  93;  on  negro  inferiority, 
101;  on  leasing  convicts,  202; 
pardons,  202;  opposition  to  ne- 
gro education,  327,  371;  and 
race  problem,  345;  on  illegal 
control  of  Negroes,  365. 


442 


INDEX 


Venereal  disease,  Negroes  and, 
108. 

Vermont.  School  statistics,  295; 
comparative  statistics,  397- 
417. 

Vice.    See  Morals. 

Virginia.  And  Hampton  Insti- 
tute, 317;  comparative  statis- 
tics, 397-417. 

Virginia  Cooperative  Educa- 
tion Association,  306. 

Virginia,  University  of.  Found- 
ing, 290;  standing  of,  203. 

W 

Wage  hands  on  cotton  planta- 
tions, 265. 

Wages.    See  Labor,  Teachers. 

Wanderer,  Negroes  imported  in, 
110. 

Washington,  B.  T.  Works  on  ne- 
gro problem,  15;  negro  hostil- 
ity to,  130;  on  acquiring  land, 
144,  372;  incident  of  lunch 
with  Roosevelt,  162;  Dixon  on, 
180,  319,  332;  on  South  as 
home  of  Negro,  262,  355;  on 
treatment  of  cotton  hands, 
267;  influence  of  Tuskegec, 
319;  as  writer,  325;  as  leader, 
333,  334. 

Washington,  George,  and  fertil- 
izing, 253. 

Washington,  State  of,  compara- 
tive statistics  of,  399-417. 

Watauga  Co.,  N.  C.,  Negroes  ex- 
cluded from,  166. 

Water-power  in  South,  26,  225. 

Waterways,  Southern,  226. 


Watson,  T.  E.,  on  cry  of  negro 
domination,  160. 

Watterson,  Henry,  on  Southern 
wealth,  231. 

Wealth,  Southern.  Private,  62; 
enlarged  views,  89,  231,  247; 
negro  accumulation,  143-148; 
actual,  218-230;  under  slavery, 
218;  postbellum  poverty,  219; 
recent  great  increase,  219;  ag- 
ricultural, 220-221;  forests, 
221-224;  mineral,  224;  in  man- 
ufactures, 224-225 :  capital 
and  banking,  225;  commercial, 
226-229,  233;  comparative, 
North  and  South,  231-249; 
Southern  claims  considered, 
232,  247,  249,  276,  338;  in- 
fluence of  labor  conditions, 
232,  235,  246,  247,  277;  pen- 
sions, 234;  proper  basis  for 
comparison,  234;  comparative 
tables,  234,  400-417;  materials 
for  comparison,  235;  compara- 
tive, of  seceding  states,  236- 
239,  248;  of  whole  South,  239- 
245,  248;  on  basis  of  white 
population,  246-247;  uneven 
advance  of  Southern,  242 ;  act- 
ual and  comparative  rate  of 
Southern  accumulation,  243- 
245. 

West  Indies,  capacity  of  Negroes 
in,  97-99. 

West  Virginia.  And  South,  20; 
comparative  statistics,  399- 
417. 

Wheat.  As  an  export,  233; 
Southern  crop.  251 ;  price  and 
election  of  McKinley,  261. 


29 


443 


INDEX 


Whipping  on  plantations,  194. 

White  Trash,  name  for  Poor 
Whites,  38. 

Whitecapping,  195. 

Whites,  Southern.  Effect  of 
city  life,  27 ;  position  of  North- 
erners in  South,  48-50;  small 
farmers,  60;  division  on,  and 
discussion  of  race  problem,  67- 
72,  345-346,  391;  generaliza- 
tions on  Negroes,  92 ;  Southern 
exaltation,  102;  ignorance  of 
negro  life,  114,  124,340,391; 
race  association,  149-165; 
problem  of  association,  149- 
151;  miscegenation,  1 5 1- 1 57 ; 
remedy  for  it,  157;  exclusion 
of  mulattoes,  156 ;  evil  of 
amalgamation,  157,  344,  349; 
growth  of  race  antagonism, 
158-161,  216,  340,  389;  fear  of 
negro  domination,  160,  172; 
Negroes  on  race  antagonism, 
160;  basis  of  prejudice,  161; 
race  separation,  160-180;  fear 
of  negro  social  equality,  162- 
165,  340;  suppression  of  negro 
development  by,  178-180;  il- 
lustration of  race  antagonism, 
181-183;  responsibility  for  in- 
efficient criminal  justice,  203; 
comparative  wealth  of  South 
on  basis  of  white  inhabitants, 
235,  246;  laborers  on  cotton 
plantations,  255, 262, 264, 267; 
peonage  of,  280-281 ;  advance- 
ment, 339;  domination,  339, 
343;  perpetual  superiority, 
340;  violent  agitation  of  race 
problem,  341;  despair  over 


problem,  342;  to  control  set- 
tlement of  problem,  344;  ter- 
rorizing of  Negroes,  358-366; 
advantages  to,  of  negro  up- 
lift, 371,  373;  necessity  of 
cooperation  with  Negroes, 
388-391;  duties  in  problem, 
392;  comparative  statistics  of 
population,  397-399.  See  also 
Crime,  Education,  Histo- 
ry, Immigration,  Leadership, 
Mountaineers,  Negroes,  Poor 
Whites,  Remedies,  Social  life, 
Temperament. 

Whittaker,  assault  by,  186. 

Williams,  G.  W.,  "Negro  Race 
in  America, "  14. 

Williams,  J.  S.  On  immigration, 
51,  352;  senatorial  campaign, 
72;  on  increasing  race  antago- 
nism, 159,  361 ;  on  basis  of  race 
prejudice,  161;  on  remedy  of 
race  problem,  343,  394;  on  ne- 
gro emigration,  352;  on  good 
conduct  of  negroes,  368;  on 
recognizing  negro  worth,  380; 
on  prevention  of  negro  crimes, 
382. 

Wilmington,  Del.,  lynching  in, 
210. 

Wilmington,  N.  C.  As  port,  22, 
229;  banishment  of  Negroes, 
206. 

Winston,  G.  T.  On  South,  5; 
on  negro  criminality,  188;  on 
negro  uplift,  371. 

Wirz,  Henry,  statue  to,  89. 

Wisconsin.  School  statistics, 
295;  comparative  statistics, 
397-417. 


-ill 


INDEX 


Women.  Labor  on  cotton  plan- 
tations, 265;  school  education 
in  South,  299;  college  educa- 
tion, 301,  302. 

Wool,  Southern  crop  of,  251. 

World  Almanac,  statistics  from, 
235,  248. 

World's  Work,  articles  in,  on 
Southern  question,  18. 

"Worth,  Nicholas."  "Autobi- 
ography," 18;  on  Southerners 


and  criticism,  72;  on  Southern 
exaggeration,  73;  on  histor- 
ical ignorance,  83;  on  race  an- 
tagonism, 159;  on  training 
cotton  hands,  267. 
Wyoming,  comparative  statistics 
of,  399-417. 


Zinc  in  South,  224. 


(3) 


THE    END 


VIVID,  MOVING,  SYMPATHETIC,  HUMOROUS. 


A  Diary  from  Dixie. 

By  MARY  BOYKIN  CHESNUT.  Being  her  Diary  from 
November,  1861,  to  August,  1865.  Edited  by  Isabella  D. 
Martin  and  Myrta  Lopkett  Avary.  Illustrated.  8vo.  Orna- 
mental Cloth,  $2.50  net;  postage  additional. 

Mrs.  Chesnut  was  the  most  brilliant  woman  that  the  South 
has  ever  produced,  and  the  charm  of  her  writing  is  such  as  to 
make  all  Southerners  proud  and  all  Northerners  envious.  She  was 
the  wife  of  James  Chesnut,  Jr.,  who  was  United  States  Senator 
from  South  Carolina  from  1859  to  1861,  and  acted  as  an  aid  to 
President  Jefferson  Davis,  and  was  subsequently  a  Brigadier-Gen- 
eral in  the  Confederate  Army.  Thus  it  was  that  she  was  intimately 
acquainted  with  all  the  foremost  men  in  the  Southern  cause. 

"  In  this  diary  is  preserved  the  most  moving  and  vivid  record  of  the  South- 
ern Confederacy  of  which  we  have  any  knowledge.  It  is  a  piece  of  social 
history  of  inestimable  value.  It  interprets  to  posterity  the  spirit  in  which  the 
Southerners  entered  upon  and  struggled  through  the  war  that  ruined  them. 
It  paints  poignantly  but  with  simplicity  the  wreck  of  that  old  world  which  had 
so  much  about  it  that  was  beautiful  and  noble  as  well  as  evil.  Students  of 
American  life  have  often  smiled,  and  with  reason,  at  the  stilted  and  extrava- 
gant fashion  in  which  the  Southern  woman  had  been  described  south  of  Mason 
and  Dixon's  line — the  unconscious  self-revelations  of  Mary  Chesnut  explain, 
if  they  do  not  justify,  such  extravagance.  For  here,  we  cannot  but  believe, 
ii  a  creature  of  a  fine  type,  a  '  very  woman,'  a  very  Beatrice,  frank,  irrpetuous, 
loving,  full  of  sympathy,  full  of  humor.  Like  her  prototype,  she  had  preju- 
dices, and  she  knew  little  of  the  Northern  people  she  cnticised  so  -evtrely  ; 
but  there  is  less  bitterness  in  the-^e  pages  than  we  might  have  expected.  Per- 
haps the  editors  have  seen  to  that.  However  this  may  be  they  have  done 
nothing  to  injure  the  writer's  own  nervous,  unconventional  style  a  style 
breathing  character  and  temperament  as  the  flower  breathes  fragrance." 

— New  York  Tribune. 

"  It  is  \  rif.en  straight  from  the  heart,  and  with  a  natural  grace  of  style 
that  no  amount  of  polishing  could  have  imparted."  -Chicago  Record-Herald. 

"  The  editors  are  to  be  congratulated  ;  it  is  not  every  day  that  one  comes 
on  each  material  as  this  long-hidden  diary." — Louisville  Evening  Post. 

"  It  is  a  book  that  would  have  delighted  Charles  Lamb." 

— Houston  CkronicU. 

D.     APPLETON     AND    COMPANY,     NEW     YORK. 


A  NOVEL  THAT  IS  ALL  TRUE. 

Bethany :  A  Story  of  the  Old  South. 

By  THOMAS  E.  WATSON,  author  of  "The  Life 
and  Times  of  Thomas  Jefferson,"  etc.  Illustrated. 
I2mo.  Ornamental  Cloth,  $1.50. 

41  Few  writers  of  the  present  day  have  reached  the  deserved  literary  emi- 
nence and  prominence  that  has  been  achieved  by  Thomas  E.  Watson,  Presi- 
dential candidate  of  the  People's  Party,  author  of  '  The  Life  and  Times  of 
Thomas  Jefferson'  and  other  important  historical  works.  Mr.  Watson  is  a 
student,  historian,  and  biographer,  as  well  as  a  finished  orator.  It  comes  in 
the  nature  of  a  pleasant  surprise,  therefore,  to  find  that  this  brilliant  author 
has  turned  his  attention  to  fiction.  Probably  no  writer  of  the  present  day 
brings  just  such  broad  knowledge,  scholarly  attainments,  and  intimate  style 
into  the  composition  of  his  books  as  does  Mr.  Watson.  He  is  particularly 
qualified  to  bring  to  a  successful  termination  any  literary  work  he  may  attempt. 
In  '  Bethany '  he  tells  in  his  brilliant  style  of  the  old  South  as  he  knew  it  in 
his  boyhood.  This  work  is  only  in  part  fiction.  Mr.  Watson  has  succeeded 
admirably  in  picturing  the  life  of  the  people  of  Georgia  during  the  anti- 
slavery  controversy  and  the  war  itself.  In  doing  this  he  has  written  a  book 
that  throbs  with  human  emotions  on  every  page  and  pulsates  with  strong, 
virile  life  in  every  sentence.  Mr.  Watson  has  written  '  Bethany '  from  the  heart 
as  well  as  from  the  head.  With  broad  comprehension  and  unfailing  accuracy 
he  has  drawn  characters  and  depicted  incidents  which  deserve  to  be  considered 
as  models  of  the  people." 

"The  Hon.  Thomas  E.  Watson  of  Georgia  is  a  man  of  many  parts. 
Above  all  he  is  still  able  to  learn,  as  those  who  will  compare  the  second  part 
of  his  '  Story  of  France '  with  the  first  may  easily  see.  In  '  Bethany  :  A  Story 
of  the  Old  South,'  he  plunges  into  romance,  it  seems  to  us  with  complete  suc- 
cess. The  story  is  told  directly,  clearly,  in  excellent  English,  and  is  as  vivid  a 
picture  of  a  Southern  family  during  the  war  as  anyone  could  wish  for." 

—New  York  Sun. 

"As  a  'true  picture  of  the  times  and  the  people,'  as  of  war  and  its  horrors, 
the  book  will  be  welcomed  by  both  North  and  South.  Clear,  simple,  occa- 
sionally abrupt,  the  story  is  always  subordinated  to  the  historical  facts  that  lie 
back  of  it.  Yet  it  cannot  be  gainsaid  that  each  illumines  the  other,  nor  that 
1  Bethany '  possesses  distinct  value  as  a  just  and  genuine  contribution  to  the 
literature  of  the  present  '  Southern  revival.'  " — Chicago  Record-Herald. 

"  The  love-story  of  the  young  soldier  and  his  faithful  sweetheart  is  a  per- 
fect idyll  of  old  plantation  life,  and  its  sad  ending  fits  properly  into  the  tragedy 
of  that  fearful  war." — St.  Louis  Globe-Democrat. 

D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY,    NEW    YORK. 


UNLIKE  ANY  OTHER  BOOK. 


A  Virginia  Girl  in  the  Civil  War. 

Being  the  Authentic  Experiences  of  a  Confederate 
Major's  Wife  who  followed  her  Husband  into  Camp  at 
the  Outbreak  of  the  War.  L/ined  and  Supped  with  General 
J.  E.  B.  Stuart,  ran  the  Blockade  to  Baltimore,  and  was 
in  Richmond  when  it  was  Evacuated.  Collected  and 
edited  by  MYRTA  LOCKE rx  AVARY.  izmo.  Cloth,  $1-25 
net ;  postage  additional. 

"  The  people  described  are  gentlefolk  to  the  back-bone,  and  the  reader 
must  be  a  hard-hearted  cynic  if  h«  does  not  fall  in  love  with  the  ingenuous 
and  delightful  girl  who  tells  the  story." — New  York  Sun. 

"The  narrative  is  one  that  both  interests  and  charms.  The  beginning  of 
the  end  of  the  long  and  desperate  struggle  is  unusually  well  told,  and  how 
the  survivors  lived  during  the  last  days  of  the  fading  Confederacy  forms  a 
vivid  picture  of  those  distressful  times."— Baltimore  Herald. 

"The  style  of  the  narrative  is  attractively  informal  and  chatty.  Its 
pathos  is  that  of  simplicity.  It  throws  upon  a  cruel  period  of  our  national 
career  a  side-light,  bringing  out  tender  and  softening  interests  too  little  visi- 
ble in  the  pages  of  formal  history."— New  York  World. 

"  This  is  a  tale  that  will  appeal  to  every  Southern  man  and  woman,  and 
can  not  fail  to  be  of  interest  to  every  reader.  It  is  as  fresh  and  vivac.ous, 
even  in  dealing  with  dark  days,  as  the  young  soul  that  underwent  the  hard- 
ships of  a  most  cruel  war."  -Louisville  Courier- yournal. 

"  The  narrative  is  not  formal,  is  often  fragmentary.  an^  IS  always  warmly 
human.  .  .  .  There  are  scenes  among  the  dead  and  wounded,  but  as  one 
winks  back  a  tear  the  next  page  presents  a  negro  commanded  to  mount  a 
strange  mule  in  midstream,  at  th«  injustice  of  which  he  strongly  protests."— 
Neiv  York  Telegram. 

"Taken  at  this  time,  when  the  years  have  buried  all  resentment,  dulled 
all  sorrows,  and  brought  new  generations  to  the  scenes,  a  work  of  tl'ir-  kind 
can  not  fail  of  value  just  as  it  can  not  fail  in  interest.  Official  history  moves 
with  two  great  strides  to  permit  of  the  smaller,  more  intimate  event- ;  fiction 
lacks  the  realistic,  powerful  appeal  of  actuality  ;  such  works  as  this  mt:st  he 
depended  upon  to  fill  in  the  unoccupied  interstices,  to  show  us  just  \vh«r. 
were  the  lives  of  those  who  were  in  this  conflict  or  who  lived  in  the  mirlst  of 
it  without  being  able  actively  to  participate  in  it.  And  of  this  type  '  A  Vir- 
ginia Girl  in  the  Civil  U'ar '  is  a  truly  admirable  example."  rhiladflfhia 
JKecord. 

D.     APPLETON     AND     COMPANY,     NEW     YORK. 


'EVERY   AMERICAN   SHOULD  READ  IT." 

— The  News,  Providence. 


The  Life  and  Times  of  Thomas  Jefferson. 

By  THOMAS  E.  WATSON,  Author  of  "The  Story  of 
France,"  "  Napoleon,"  etc.  Illustrated  with  many  Portraits 
and  Views.  8vo.  Attractively  bound,  $2.50  net ;  postage, 
17  cents  additional. 

Mr.  Watson  long  since  acquired  a  national  reputation  in  connection 
with  his  political  activities  in  Georgia.  He  startled  the  public  soon 
afterward  by  the  publication  of  a  history  of  France,  which  at  once 
attracted  attention  quite  as  marked,  though  different  in  kind.  His  book 
became  interesting  not  alone  as  the  production  of  a  Southern  man 
interested  in  politics,  but  as  an  entirely  original  conception  of  a  great 
theme.  There  was  no  question  that  a  life  of  Jefferson  from  the  hands  of 
such  a  writer  would  command  very  general  attention,  and  the  publishers 
had  no  sooner  announced  the  work  as  in  preparation  than  negotiations 
were  begun  with  the  author  by  two  of  the  best-known  newspapers  in 
America  for  its  publication  in  serial  form.  During  the  past  summer  the 
appearance  of  the  story  in  this  way  has  created  widespread  comment 
which  has  now  been  drawn  to  the  book  just  published. 

Opinions  by  some  of  the  Leading  Papers. 

"  A  vastly  entertaining  polemic.  It  directs  attention  to  many  undoubtedly 
neglected  facts  which  writers  of  the  North  have  ignored  or  minimized." 

— The  New  York  Times  Saturday  Review  of  Books. 

"A  noble  work.  It  may  well  stand  on  the  shelf  beside  Morley's 
1  Gladstone '  and  other  epochal  biographical  works  that  have  come  into 
prominence.  It  is  deeply  interesting  and  thoroughly  fair  and  just." 

—  The  Globe-Democrat,  St.  Louis. 

"  The  book  shows  great  research  and  is  as  complete  as  it  could  possibly  be, 
and  every  American  should  read  it."— The  News,  Providence. 

"A  unique  historical  work."—  The  Commercial  Advertiser,  New  York. 

"  Valuable  as  an  historical  document  and  as  a  witness  to  certain  great  facts 
in  the  past  life  of  the  South  which  have  seldom  been  acknowledged  by 
historians."—  The  Post,  Louisville. 

D.    APPLETON     AND     COMPANY,     NEW     YORK. 


LES 


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